CAREER: Evryscope Science: Realizing the Potential of the First Full-Sky Gigapixel-Scale Telescope

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

The Evryscope is a new type of telescope that records the entire sky visible from Chile in each exposure, and it obtains a new exposure every two minutes, night after night. Its 691 megapixel camera and the continuous operation will enable the discovery of short-timescale events, such as the decrease in apparent brightness when a planet passes in front of its host star. Professor Law, along with students at the University of North Carolina, developed the Evryscope and will use it as the centerpiece of his 5-year integrated education and research plan in this Faculty Early Career Development Program award. In addition to providing opportunities for student research training, the PI will develop Evryscope-based modules into large introductory classes and into the upper-level observational astronomy curriculum. The team will create a zoomable, real-time view of the dynamic sky seen by Evryscope into a giant interactive planetarium display at UNC's Moorhead planetarium. This public exhibit will be used by hundreds of thousands of school-age children and planetarium visitors. The PI has deployed the 8000 square-degree Evryscope at Cerro Tololo, where it is recording the entire southern sky down to 16th magnitude with 2-minute cadence. The PI and his students will conduct the Evryscope survey of a range of variable and transient targets, and they will develop the data processing/analysis and database tools to maximize the scientific output of this survey. Their principal focus will be a large survey for habitable rocky planets around the nearest white dwarfs.