$3.5M grant to Georgia State will fuel space research across the globe

(Press-News.org) ATLANTA — A new three-year, $3.5 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation will foster new research at Georgia State’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array by astronomers from around the world.

The grant will fund open-access time at the CHARA Array through the NSF National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NSF NOIRLab). The program offers astronomers the opportunity to apply for observing time at the CHARA Array to investigate all kinds of objects in the sky. Research conducted at the array is focused on studying the astrophysical properties of stars in extremely fine detail.

“We are thrilled to host these international teams of scientists to use the facilities here at the CHARA Array,” said Gail Schaefer, director of the array. “This program brings together collaborators who can share their expertise and achieve new milestones in most areas of contemporary astronomy, and specifically to the field of stellar astrophysics.”

Georgia State’s CHARA Array interferometer at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California combines the light of six telescopes spread across the mountaintop. While the views through each telescope are relatively small, when combined, they achieve the spatial resolution of a much larger telescope. This configuration gives the CHARA Array the sharpest eyes in the world for visible and infrared wavelengths.

The six domes of the CHARA Array house individual telescopes that act together to create an equivalent as large as the entire Mount Wilson Observatory grounds.

The demand for time on the CHARA Array has been extremely high due to its significance as a resource for the international research community. With the new National Science Foundation grant, the program will make 100 nights per year available to the global research community via an application system. CHARA staff members also provide scientific and technical support to assist new users at the array.

CHARA Director and Regents' Professor of Physics and Astronomy Douglas Gies said the new funding will allow astronomers to fulfill plans to explore stars in exquisite detail.

“The National Science Foundation award is the key to open the array to the best ideas about new avenues for research,” he said. “There will be remarkable new results coming soon about stars, planets and distant active galaxies.”

It has been nearly 15 years since CHARA first offered access to the array to the general community in 2010. Initially, only a limited number of 10 nights per year were available through a trial program. Thanks to its success, CHARA has been able to expand the program for open competition through NOIRLab. To date, more than 400 astronomers have led observational programs at CHARA through the open-access program.

“CHARA runs the best optical and infrared interferometer in the world and delivers the highest resolution observations possible at these wavelengths,” said Nigel Sharp, a program director in NSF’s Division of Astronomical Sciences. “It is exciting to see that such observations can be delivered routinely and that CHARA’s sought-after capabilities are now available to non-experts in the research community.”

Already, the program has led to exciting breakthroughs including detailed images of the surfaces of nearby stars, new high-resolution images of a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy, the first images of a nova as it exploded, the sharpest images of young planet-forming disks around stars and evidence that groups of stars can tear apart their planet-forming disk, leaving it with tilted rings.

“We anticipate significant impact through the open-application program supported by the National Science Foundation,” said Donald Hamelberg, Georgia State’s interim vice president for research and economic development. “This program not only fosters scientific collaboration but also attracts renowned scientists from across the globe to conduct groundbreaking research using the CHARA Array."

Thanks to the layout of the telescopes, the length of its baselines and the range of wavelengths covered by its beam combiner cameras, the CHARA Array is uniquely powerful for milliarcsecond imaging research. For example, the array can measure objects as small as a dime as viewed from a distance of 6,000 miles.

The CHARA Array is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and Georgia State University through the College of Arts & Sciences and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. For more information about Georgia State University research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu.

 Additional Contact information:

Gail Schaefer— CHARA Array Director: gschaefer@gsu.edu

Douglas Gies— CHARA Director and Regents’ Professor of Physics and Astronomy: dgies@gsu.edu

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