Project Grant 80NSSC24K1876

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences awarded a $520,894 Project Grant to the University of Arizona under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to develop improved image processing software for high-contrast imaging of exoplanets. The project aims to leverage wavefront sensor data from adaptive optics systems to enhance exoplanet detection and characterization capabilities of existing ground-based telescopes. The investigators will...

This three-year, $339,316 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports research characterizing exoplanet host stars through long-baseline optical interferometry. Louisiana State University will use the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy array to directly determine physical radii and effective temperatures of nearby stars, with an emphasis on exoplanet hosts. Data collected will provide empirical parameters for...

This Project Grant award of $678,244 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports research by the University of California, Berkeley to advance the use of adaptive optics (AO) systems for visible-light astronomy. The key products and services to be delivered include: Developing a high-fidelity numerical simulation, or "digital twin", of the AO system at the W.M. Keck Observatory to identify sources of wavefront error and...

This $219,980 National Science Foundation award under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) will fund the development and deployment of the Airborne Coronal Emission Surveyor (ACES) instrument. ACES, an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer, will observe the solar corona from the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V aircraft during the 2024 total solar eclipse across North America. Led by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the project team will use ACES to identify emission lines in the 1-4 micrometer...

This three-year, $542,317 National Science Foundation project grant supports the development of an integral field unit speckle imager by researchers at Southern Connecticut State University. Funded through NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), this innovative new astronomical instrument will enable hyperspectral speckle imaging to precisely measure the properties of close binary star systems and characterize exoplanets orbiting binary stars. By collecting visible...

This $299,997 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure under the CFDA 47.070 Computer and Information Science and Engineering program supports the development of free and open-source software and a web interface for extracting high-precision brightness measurements of stars from citizen scientist observations collected with color digital cameras. The project aims to greatly expand the pool of citizen scientists able to contribute to...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences project grant of $248,151 will support high resolution optical interferometry studies of interacting binary star systems to better understand stellar evolution and the formation of neutron stars and black holes. Led by Dr. [PI name] at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, the team will use the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy array to collect interferometric data on known symbiotic binary stars over a...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences awarded a $226,078 Project Grant to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under the CFDA 47.049 Mathematical and Physical Sciences program. The 2-year grant, effective September 1, 2023, aims to develop advanced photonic lantern technology to enable the characterization of hundreds of exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. The key research objectives are to design novel hybrid and mode-selective...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program provides $236,198 to the University of Illinois to conduct research on minimizing the impact of satellite optical reflections on key astronomical observing systems, particularly the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The work involves developing software to accurately predict satellite positions and optical brightness, leveraging collaborations with the Aerospace...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences Project Grant, awarded on August 1, 2023 for $242,524, supports collaborative research by the University of Arizona aimed at exploring the composition of exoplanetary systems through observations and modeling of dusty circumstellar disks around other stars. The research goal is to determine the composition of rocky material orbiting other stars by analyzing the dust released from colliding rocks, which reflects and...