Fast Transients, Superflares and Exoplanet Habitability: Exploring the Minute-Cadence Sky with the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine

该项目将使用位于南北半球的小型望远镜观测整个夜空，以寻找物体亮度的短时间尺度变化(不到两分钟)。研究人员将开发软件来实时检测这些变化，并向其他天文学家发送警报，使他们能够跟进自己的观测。该项目将研究恒星上的巨型耀斑，这些耀斑可能会影响周围轨道上的行星，还将研究闪光的速度，这些闪光是地球大气层中的物质被烧毁的结果。其他天文学家将通过接收天空中此类变化的警报来获得帮助。参与该项目的科学家还在开发一个天文馆展览，为公众提供时间分辨天文学演化领域的信息。北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的研究人员将使用Evry望远镜对整个快速瞬变天空进行系统调查，并将与使用SOAR望远镜进行的光谱观测相协调。EvryScope望远镜与新开发的低延迟瞬变探测管道EvryScope快速运输引擎(EFTE)相结合，能够每两分钟在16500平方度的天空中搜索快速瞬变事件。这将与一个机器学习审查系统相结合，该系统将把假阳性降低到低水平。这一新能力将使对超耀斑等事件的高速探测和后续行动成为可能。这些巨大的恒星耀斑对凉爽恒星周围的行星的宜居性有严重的影响，但到目前为止还不太受限制。此外，研究人员将首次对瞬变轨道碎片快速闪光进行详细描述，这构成了高节奏天空测量的重要前景。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will observe the entire night sky to search for short time scale changes (less than two minutes) in the brightness of objects using small telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres. The researchers will develop software to detect these changes in real time and send alerts to other astronomers to enable them to follow up with their own observations. The project will study giant flares on stars that could impact planets in orbit about them, and also to study the rate of flashes that are the result of materials being burnt up in the earth's atmosphere. Other astronomers will be helped by receiving alerts to such changes in the sky. The scientists involved in this project are also developing a planetarium exhibit to provide the public with information on the evolving field of time resolved astronomy.Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will conduct a systematic investigation of the entire rapid transient sky using Evryscopes that will be coordinated with spectroscopic observations using the SOAR Telescope. The Evryscope telescopes, coupled with the Evryscope Fast Transit Engine (EFTE), a newly-developed low-latency transient-detection pipeline, are capable of searching for rapid transient events over 16,500 square degrees of the sky every two minutes. This will be coupled with a machine-learning vetting system that will reduce false positives to low levels. This new capability will enable the high-speed detection and follow-up for events such as superflares. These are giant stellar flares that have serious, but as-yet poorly-constrained, effects on the habitability of planets around cool stars. Additionally, the researchers will perform the first detailed characterization of transient orbital-debris fast-flashes, which form an important foreground for high cadence sky surveys.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.