Monterey Institute For Research In Astronomy

EQUIPMENT: MRI: TRACK 1 DEVELOPMENT OF CODAS: A SYSTEM FOR CONCURRENT AND MULTI-TECHNIQUE OBSERVATIONS OF TIME-SENSITIVE STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS -IN RECENT DECADES, ASTRONOMERS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THE UNIVERSE IS MORE DYNAMIC, ON ALL TIME SCALES, THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED. ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH THAT DEPENDS ON OBSERVATIONS MADE WITH MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS AT THE SAME TIME IS CHALLENGING TO ORGANIZE AND ACHIEVE. THE CONCURRENT OBSERVING AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM (CODAS) OFFERS A MULTI-MODE, OBSERVING TOOL THAT CAN ADDRESS THE NEED FOR SIMULTANEOUS DATA. THIS PROJECT WILL INTEGRATE CURRENT AND NEW HARDWARE INTO A SINGLE, COHESIVE INSTRUMENT THAT CAN EXPLORE MANY AREAS OF TIME-SENSITIVE ASTROPHYSICS. THE CODAS ARRAY OF INSTRUMENTS IS SENSITIVE OVER A BROAD RANGE OF WAVELENGTHS, FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET TO THE INFRARED. USERS WILL BE ABLE TO QUICKLY SELECT THE OPTIMAL INSTRUMENT CONFIGURATION FOR THEIR OBSERVATIONS. STUDENTS FROM NEARBY HISPANIC SERVING INSTITUTIONS WILL BE RECRUITED AND PRIORITIZED WITHIN THEIR ANNUAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM. CODAS UTILIZES THE CAPACITY OF THE POINTING PLATFORM TO CARRY THE CO-ALIGNED 36-INCH AND 14-INCH TELESCOPES AND THE GUIDANCE-ACQUISITION PACKAGE (GAP), WHICH QUICKLY REDIRECTS LIGHT TO ONE OF MULTIPLE INSTRUMENT ACCESS PORTS ON THE 36-INCH. THIS PROJECT WILL DESIGN, ENGINEER, AND DOCUMENT THE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE NECESSARY TO SUPPORT CONCURRENT DATA ACQUISITION (SIMULTANEOUS 36-INCH AND 14-INCH OBSERVATIONS) AND CONTIGUOUS DATA ACQUISITION (DIFFERENT INSTRUMENT PORTS ON THE 36-INCH GAP). IT WILL DEVELOP THE USER SOFTWARE INTERFACE REQUIRED FOR ASTRONOMERS TO EFFICIENTLY OBSERVE WITH CODAS. THE AVAILABLE OBSERVING MODES INCLUDE STANDARD FILTER PHOTOMETRY WITH CCD AND CMOS DETECTORS, LONG-SLIT AND ECHELLE SPECTROGRAPHS, AND HIGH-PRECISION POLARIMETERS, INCLUDING A HIGH-EFFICIENCY IMAGING POLARIMETER. MOST INSTRUMENTS ARE DESIGNED TO BE SENSITIVE FROM THE ATMOSPHERIC CUTOFF IN THE NEAR-ULTRAVIOLET (300NM) TO THE NEAR-IR (1000NM), AND TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TYPICAL SUB-ARCSECOND SEEING AT THE OBSERVATORY. ADDITIONAL NEAR-IR DETECTORS EXTEND THIS RANGE TO 2.5 MICRONS FOR THE IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPIC MODES. THIS WORK ADDS A CRUCIAL ABILITY TO RESPOND TO TIME DOMAIN-CRITICAL TRANSIENT EVENTS WITH MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS. THIS PROJECT WILL PROVIDE TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND EARLY COLLEGE-LEVEL INTERNS IN THE AREAS OF INSTRUMENT DESIGN, ENGINEERING AND FABRICATION, AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. THIS AWARD ADDRESSES/ADVANCES THE GOALS OF THE WINDOWS ON THE UNIVERSE BIG IDEA. 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.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

UNRAVELING THE ANOMALOUS MAGNETIC FIELDS AND CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES OF AP/BP STARS VIA INDUSTRIAL SCALE SPECTROSCOPY -THIS AWARD INVESTIGATES A CLASS OF STARS KNOWN AS AP STARS, WHICH ARE CHEMICALLY PECULIAR AND POSSESS UNUSUALLY STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS. UNDERSTANDING HOW THESE MAGNETIC FIELDS FORM WILL PROVIDE KEY INSIGHTS INTO HOW STARS EVOLVE AND INTERACT OVER TIME. USING A LARGE, UNIFORM DATASET OF INFRARED SPECTRA, THIS STUDY WILL IDENTIFY AND ANALYZE THOUSANDS OF AP STARS TO TEST WHETHER THEIR MAGNETIC FIELDS MAY RESULT FROM STELLAR MERGERS. THE RESEARCH WILL ALSO INVOLVE STUDENTS, OFFERING HANDS-ON RESEARCH EXPERIENCES THAT CAN INSPIRE FUTURE CAREERS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS (STEM). THIS AWARD WILL SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HOMOGENEOUS AND STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT CATALOG OF CHEMICALLY PECULIAR AP STARS OBSERVED BY THE SDSS/APOGEE SURVEY AND TO DETERMINE THEIR STELLAR PARAMETERS, CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES, MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTHS, AND BINARY PROPERTIES. THE INVESTIGATORS WILL UTILIZE HIGH-RESOLUTION, NEAR-INFRARED SPECTRA AND MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES TO CLASSIFY AP STARS AND TO MEASURE THEIR PARAMETERS UNIFORMLY. MULTI-EPOCH RADIAL VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS WILL BE USED TO ESTIMATE BINARY FRACTIONS AND TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT AP STARS ORIGINATE FROM STELLAR MERGERS. FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS USING MIRA FACILITIES WILL CHARACTERIZE MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTHS THROUGH SPECTRAL LINE SPLITTING AND ANALYZE VARIABILITY USING TESS LIGHT CURVES. THE RESULTING CATALOG WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE BROADER ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY. HIGH SCHOOL AND EARLY COLLEGE STUDENT INTERNS WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE RESEARCH PROGRAM AND IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC-FACING SPECTROSCOPIC WORKSHOPS AIMED AT LOCAL AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS AND UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES. 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.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

THE UNDERSTANDING OF COMET TRAILS ARE FUNDAMENTAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE COMPOSITION AND ORIGIN OF COMETS, THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIACAL DUST CLOUD, THE O

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: POLARIMETRIC ASTEROSEISMOLOGY OF MASSIVE HOT STARS -MASSIVE HOT STARS ARE THE GREATEST SOURCES OF ENERGY AND NEW MATERIAL IN THE GALAXY. A COLLABORATION OF ASTRONOMERS AT THE MONTEREY INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY (MIRA), FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY, THE SETI INSTITUTE, THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON, ALONG WITH THEIR INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS AIM TO DETERMINE THE INTERIOR STRUCTURES OF THESE STARS BY THE APPLICATION OF A NEW TECHNIQUE: POLARIMETRIC ASTEROSEISMOLOGY. SEISMIC WAVES BOUNCE AROUND THE INTERIORS OF STARS DISTURBING THEIR SURFACES AS IF IN A PERPETUAL STAR-QUAKE. THE COLLABORATION WILL MAKE OBSERVATIONS OF THIS PHENOMENON IN KEY STARS IN TANDEM WITH GROUND- AND SPACE-BASED TELESCOPES (INCLUDING THE NASA TESS MISSION). A NEW NETWORK OF THE WORLD'S MOST SENSITIVE POLARIMETERS, SPANNING A THIRD OF THE EARTH WILL BE USED TO DETECT THE SURFACE OSCILLATIONS CAUSED BY THESE SEISMIC WAVES. THE TEAM WILL ALSO BUILD ON ESTABLISHED CODE TO DEVELOP SOPHISTICATED NEW COMPUTER MODELS TO INTERPRET THE MULTI-FACETED DATA. COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, INCLUDING SOME FROM TRADITIONALLY UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS, WILL ASSIST WITH THE PROJECT AND GAIN THEIR FIRST HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE OF OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY AND MODELING. CITIZEN SCIENTISTS WILL ALSO BE INVOLVED, AND THE PROJECT WILL FORM PART OF MIRA'S PUBLIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS. A VERY EXTENSIVE DATA SET WILL ALLOW THE TEAM TO DETERMINE THE INTERIOR STRUCTURES OF ABOUT 10 BETA CEPHEI AND SLOWLY PULSATING B-TYPE STARS IN VARIOUS STAGES OF EVOLUTION. THIS WILL BE ENABLED BY A LARGE-SCALE COORDINATED HIGH-PRECISION POLARIMETRIC OBSERVING CAMPAIGN. TO ACHIEVE THE NEEDED PHASE COVERAGE, IT WILL INVOLVE MULTIPLE OBSERVATORIES, ALL EQUIPPED WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART PICSARR POLARIMETERS. TO OBTAIN THE NECESSARY S/N AND FREQUENCY RESOLUTION (WHICH DEPENDS ON TEMPORAL BASELINE) WILL REQUIRE MANY THOUSANDS OF NEW POLARIMETRIC OBSERVATIONS SPANNING MORE THAN 2 YEARS, MATCHED TO CORRESPONDING PHOTOMETRY AND SPECTROSCOPY ? INCLUDING NEW AND ARCHIVAL DATA. THE OBSERVATIONS WILL BE FOLLOWED BY AN INTENSIVE MULTI-PART ANALYSIS INVOLVING SOPHISTICATED RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODELING. INTEGRAL TO THE WORK IS THE CREATION OF A NEW SOFTWARE PROGRAM THAT COMBINES PULSATING STAR AND POLARIZED RADIATIVE TRANSFER CODES TO PROPERLY ACCOUNT FOR THE SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS OF ROTATION. THIS PROGRAM WILL MAKE MODE IDENTIFICATION FEASIBLE USING POLARIMETRY IN RAPIDLY ROTATING STARS. THE RESULTS WILL ENABLE STELLAR EVOLUTION MODELS TO BE PROPERLY CALIBRATED AND EXTRAPOLATED TO THE SUPERNOVA STAGE. 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.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

21-TEAM2ANCHR-0010 MIRA LA LUNA: IGNITING INTEREST IN STEM FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS OF THE SALINAS VALLEY