Open Exploration of the Time Domain with the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey

Catalina Sky Survey是由NASA资助的一个项目，目的是搜索我们太阳系中的移动物体。由NSF支持的Catalina实时瞬变探测(CRTS)补充使用了相同的数据流，以在固定的背景恒星中搜索瞬变事件，如超新星和其他形式的恒星爆炸，并监测许多类型的可变源。它实时发布结果，以便专业和认真的业余天文学家可以立即跟进。CRTS正在开发一种新的科学基础设施：实时挖掘海量数据流，并结合动态后续战略。学生有机会参与硬件或软件开发，数据挖掘本身，获得后续观察，并参与瞬变源的科学分析。到目前为止，CRTS已经发现了超过6500个不同的瞬变事件和超过1300万个可变源。通过正式和非正式的合作以及与整个天文学界的数据共享，CRTS正在能够研究变星、活动星系核、标志着恒星生命周期终点的爆炸、恒星耀斑、激变变星和经常性新星、白矮星周围的行星、新的伽马射线源以及许多其他通过“时间域天文学”可以观测到的有趣现象。该奖项为这一非常成功的计划的继续以及几项关键的改进提供资金。该方案利用现有的望远镜和大量数据流，提供了一个试验台来开发数据挖掘工具和程序，作为LSST和其他正在开发的飞行任务的前身。

The Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA-funded program to search for moving objects in our solar system. The NSF-supported Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) makes complimentary use of this same data stream to search among the fixed background stars for transient events, like supernovae and other forms of stellar explosions, and to monitor many types of variable sources. It releases its results in real time so that they can be followed up immediately by professional and serious amateur astronomers. The CRTS is developing a new kind of scientific infrastructure: real-time mining of massive data streams coupled with dynamic follow-up strategies. Students have opportunities to participate in hardware or software development, data mining itself, to obtain follow-up observations, and in the scientific analysis of the transient sources. To date, CRTS has discovered over 6500 distinct transient events and over 13 million variable sources. Through both formal and informal collaborations, as well as data sharing with the entire astronomical community, CRTS is enabling studies of variable stars, active galactic nuclei, the explosions that mark the endpoints in the life cycles of stars, stellar flares, cataclysmic variables and recurrent novae, planets around white dwarfs, new counterparts of gamma-ray sources, and many other interesting phenomena observable through "time domain astronomy". This award provides funding for continuation of this highly-successful program as well as for several key enhancements. This program, using existing telescopes and a large data stream, provides a testbed to develop data mining tools and procedures as a precursor to LSST and other missions under development.