Plans are underway to add a seventh movable telescope to Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy -- known as the CHARA Array -- that would increase the resolution, or the ability to see small objects, by a factor of three.
Located at Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California and operated by Georgia State, the new telescope will be connected using fiber optics to transport the starlight, a technique that will serve as a pathfinder for future expansion of the Array. The update comes after a group of international scientists gathered in Atlanta to take part in the 2023 CHARA Science Meeting to share the latest developments in high-resolution astronomical imaging using the CHARA Array.
"Adding a seventh moveable telescope to the Array represents a great leap forward in stellar astronomy," says Doug Gies, Regents' Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of the center. "Collaboration is truly fundamental for an undertaking like the CHARA Array. With scientists all over the world using our telescopes, this annual gathering is an important forum for us to share our latest discoveries."
The CHARA Array combines the light from six optical telescopes spread across the mountaintop to image stars with a spatial resolution equivalent to a single telescope 331 meters (over 1000 ft) in diameter. The visible and infrared observatory offers astronomers the opportunity to capture images of space with better resolution than any other telescope in the world.
More than 40 members of the CHARA Consortium, which represents 10 institutions around the world, took part in the annual review of the latest scientific and technical progress.
Scientists gathered at Georgia State University in March 2023 for the CHARA Science Meeting and Imaging Workshop.
CHARA features a new suite of instruments built by partner institutions at the University of Michigan, University of Exeter, and Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in France. This next generation of instrumentation provides unprecedented capabilities to image the surfaces of stars and their circumstellar environments at a variety of different wavelengths from the near-infrared to the visible part of the spectrum. Georgia State University is also building a new instrument that will increase the sensitivity of the CHARA Array to measure light 30 times fainter than possible now. This improvement will help astronomers probe the gas clouds swirling around supermassive black holes in very distant active galaxies.
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), CHARA has expanded its user base over the last six years by offering open access time to the global community of astronomers through a competitive proposal process offered through the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. In addition to over 60 active observers at Georgia State University and partner institutions, the open-access program has received applications from over 350 visiting astronomers around the world.
"Expanding the user community brings new opportunities for innovative science projects that broaden the impact and productivity of the CHARA Array,'' says Gail Schaefer, Director of the CHARA Array.
At the recent meeting, members presented some science highlights and findings from the CHARA Array.
The annual meeting was followed by a workshop on imaging and modeling of interferometric observations. Participants were given an overview of modeling and imaging software packages available to analyze data from stellar interferometers (arrays of telescopes that combine light together), and the workshop included interactive hands-on sessions where participants used the software tools to analyze data. Participants also brought their own data for review in order to get the most from observations made with the CHARA Array.
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