Collaborative Research: RUI: Integral Field Unit Speckle Imager

Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This project will build a new kind of imaging system for astronomical observations. The innovative new imager will be capable of removing the effect of turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to images with extremely fine detail, while simultaneously collecting all wavelengths of visible light at every point in the image. The instrument will separate the light from each point into its constituent colors for further, comprehensive analysis. These design features will lead to extremely precise measurements of the properties of stars in close binary systems, including being able to identify whether a planet in a binary star system is orbiting the brighter or the fainter star of the gravitationally-bound pair. The Kepler and TESS satellite missions have led to the discovery of a growing number of cases where planets exist in binary star systems, and this instrument will be uniquely capable of characterizing these systems. The statistics of such planet-hosting binary stars will help provide an understanding of star and planet formation processes, potentially including the formation of Earthlike planets. An education and public outreach portion of the project will create and disseminate three teaching modules for teachers suitable for science classes in Connecticut public schools and beyond. These modules will highlight the technology aspects of the project. The investigators seek to build the first hyperspectral speckle imaging instrument by using a custom-made integral field unit and taking advantage of the speed at which large-format EMCCDs can read out to capture spectra of resolved speckles on the image plane. The instrument will collect all visible light between approximately 450 and 770 nm and allow for complete flexibility in reassembling and analyzing speckle images from the raw data at all desired wavelengths. This innovation obviates the need for dispersion correction and removes the main systematic errors that limit speckle photometry. The instrument will have no moving parts and be flexible enough to use at telescopes from the 1-m class up to 4-m class. The creation of this instrument will enable two main areas in stellar and exoplanetary astronomy. First, it will resolve visible spectra of components of binary stars down to the diffraction limit. This means it will be possible to measure effective temperatures and luminosities of close binary stars in a much more robust way than with current speckle imagers or space-based surveys such as Gaia. Second, there are now many exoplanets known that are found in binary star systems. This instrument will be uniquely capable of determining which star in a binary system the planet orbits for transiting exoplanets by measuring the magnitude difference of the binary while the planet is in transit and comparing the result to when it is not. The derived statistics will lead to a better understanding of star and planet formation mechanisms as well as more accurate characterization of planetary radii and densities. An education and public outreach portion of the project will create and disseminate curriculum modules for high school science classes consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards for K-12 education. 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.