The Deep Sky Every Minute: Developing the Argus Array

阿古斯阵列计划成为第一个同时探索整个深空的大型光学望远镜。阿格斯望远镜阵由650个中等口径的望远镜组成，组成一个普通的半球形圆顶，它的收集面积相当于一个5米的望远镜，调查速度相当于维拉鲁宾天文台，但将以一种非常不同的方式覆盖天空。该阵列通过每晚6-8小时以分钟为节奏观测天空的每一部分来实现深度成像。在五年的时间里，该阵列将建立一个北方天空的双色、百万历元电影，使天文学界具有前所未有的能力，可以同时跟踪天空中每一个比23等更亮的时变源的演变。该合同将支持原型系统的建设，以验证阿格斯阵列的硬件和软件设计，同时开拓其科学调查。就更广泛的影响而言，该项目将1)直接培养2名大数据分析技术和天文仪器方面的研究生；2)为7名研究生（4名第一代学院）提供更广泛参与实验天体物理学的机会；3)建立基础设施，使全国数十名研究生能够参与新的大型调查；4)让大量本科生参与天文仪器专业；5)对Argus Array的主要影响项目进行原型设计，包括世界级时域天文天文馆的专业设计和中学生创客空间项目的开发，以激励下一代天文仪器制造商。阿格斯阵列是一个“苍蝇的眼睛”系统，旨在探索一个独特的参数空间，其节奏比任何其他深空调查快数百倍。该系统将能够比目前的平头天文调查更快地跟踪多波长触发，监测3亿颗恒星的行星引起的微透镜事件、掩星、耀斑和其他可变性，搜索数十万颗白矮星的凌日行星和碎片，及早探测超新星以探测爆炸与其前身环境的相互作用，并将测量自转速率。新发现的星际小行星和彗星在穿越太阳系时的形状和爆发率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Argus Array is planned to be the first large optical telescope to explore the entire deep sky simultaneously. Consisting of 650 moderate-aperture telescopes multiplexed into a common hemispherical dome, the Argus Array will have the equivalent collecting area of a 5m telescope, and the survey speed of the Vera Rubin Observatory, but will cover the sky in a very different way. The Array achieves deep imaging by observing every part of the sky at minute-cadence for 6-8 hours every night. Over five years, the Array will build a two-color, million-epoch movie of the northern sky, giving the astronomical community the unprecedented ability to follow the evolution of every brighter than 23rd-magnitude time-variable source across the sky simultaneously. This award will support construction of a prototype system to validate the Argus Array hardware and software design, while pioneering its science surveys. In terms of broader impacts, this project will 1) directly train two graduate students in big-data analysis techniques and astronomical instrumentation; 2) provide the opportunity for seven graduate students (four first-generation college) to more broadly participate in experimental astrophysics; 3) build the infrastructure to enable dozens of graduate students around the country to participate in a new large survey; 4) involve large numbers of undergraduates in professional astronomical instrumentation; 5) prototype the full Argus Array's major broader impacts projects, including the professional design of a world-class time-domain astronomy planetarium show and the development of middle-school MakerSpace projects to inspire the next generations of astronomical instrument builders.The Argus Array is a “fly’s eye” system that is being designed to explore a unique parameter space, with a cadence hundreds of times faster than any other deep sky survey. The system will be able to follow-up multiwavelength triggers orders of magnitude faster than current tiling astronomical surveys, monitor 300 million stars for planet-induced microlensing events, occultations, flares and other variability, search hundreds of thousands of white dwarfs for transiting planets and debris, detect supernovae early enough to probe the explosion's interactions with their progenitor environments, and will measure rotation rates, shapes and outburst rates for newly-discovered interstellar asteroids and comets as they cross the solar system.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.