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OSU receives $4.3M for astronomy instrument development
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 7, 2024
Ohio State University researchers working on development of an instrument to aid astronomers in their search for planets within the Milky Way are the beneficiaries of $4.3 million in grants to continue their efforts.
According to a news release, the team working on a next-generation spectrograph dubbed iLocator was awarded a $2.7 million award from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation Program and an award of $1.6 million from the Astrophysics Research and Analysis program at NASA.
Officials said in the release that the awards will significantly bolster iLocater’s planned scientific capabilities.
Jonathan Crass, the program’s co-principal investigator and instrument scientist at the university’s Imaging Science Laboratory, said the funding will help improve broader exoplanet research at iLocator’s intended installation site, the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona.
Additionally, the awards are expected to fund development of additional hardware for the next three years, he said.
“iLocater is really the first optimized instrument of its type,” Crass added. “We want to build new instruments with new technology so we can push the boundaries of science.”
The spectrograph was designed to detect the presence of exoplanets by studying tiny color changes in light from the stars they orbit, the release noted.
“These capabilities will effectively help build a more complete picture of how our solar system compares to other planetary systems in the Milky Way,” Crass said. “Bringing this instrument online is a great example of scientific evolution at work.”
Working with a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, scientists are expected to finish hardware development sometime next year.
The new technology will also work in tandem with spectrograph instruments at the Lowell Observatory and the Kitt Peak National Observatory to study the sun’s dynamics, effectively turning single-gathered data points, such as the sun’s wavelengths at different times of the day, into a full daytime survey of solar activity, the release continued.
“Between these three instruments, we’ll have a really strong science program and will provide unprecedented simultaneous observations and joined datasets to the research community,” he added.
One of the ways scientists are looking to ensure iLocater evolves with next-generation technologies is by educating and advising those in the field who are likely to become its caretakers over the course of their careers. To that end, funding from the awards will also strengthen efforts to increase public science outreach and engagement among future researchers, said Crass.
A Major Research Instrumentation Program grant from the NSF typically serves to increase access to multiuser scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training, the release provided.
Funding from the Astrophysics Research and Analysis program is intended to support research of new technologies and conduct feasibility demonstrations for future missions.
“These big science-focused grants inspire people to get involved and think about ways to create something that’s capable of solving the science questions we’re asking,” Crass said.
Other Ohio State members of the instrument and program team include Richard Pogge, Marshall Johnson, Michael Engelman, Daniel Pappalardo, Christopher Brandon, Jerry Mason, Mark Derwent, Ji Wang and Scott Gaudi.
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