Transcript Skynet
Vieques Observatory & The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network At the scheduled Observation is time, Skynet sends automatically instructions to scheduled by remote observatory Skynet computer at to begin observing UNC-Chapel Hill Robotic telescope points to selected object, takes picture, and sends it back to Skynet User Userrequests downloads observation picture from using Skynet a web via browser the Internet andto Internet view and connection analyze Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Effective Diameter = 1.3 meters Current Skynet Telescopes Telescopes to be Added in Coming Year The Telescope • • • • • RCOS 16” Paramount ME Apogee Alta Camera ACE Filter wheel Hurricane-Resistant Enclosure & Dome PROMPT UNC - CTIO, Chile PROMPT UNC - CTIO, Chile PROMPT UNC - CTIO, Chile Gamma Ray Bursts GRBs are the MOST POWERFUL EXPLOSIONS SINCE THE BIG BANG! A Very Massive Rotating Star Collapses into a Black Hole and Explodes into a Narrow Jet Gamma Ray Bursts GRBs are the MOST POWERFUL EXPLOSIONS SINCE THE BIG BANG! A Pair of Neutron Stars Merge and Detonate in a Thermonuclear Explosion GRB 080319B (“Naked-eye GRB”) 7 Billion Light Years Away...Halfway Across the Known Universe Bright Enough to See Without a Telescope! The Most Luminous Event Ever Observed...30,000,000,000,000,000,000 (30 Billion Billion) Times the Luminosity of the Sun, or as Bright as 100 Million Galaxies! Very Easy to Make Scientific Observations with a Small Telescope 32 seconds after burst GRB 080319B (“Naked-eye GRB”) 84 seconds after burst GRB 080319B (“Naked-eye GRB”) 230 seconds after burst GRB 080319B (“Naked-eye GRB”) 6.2 minutes after burst GRB 080319B (“Naked-eye GRB”) 33 minutes after burst Asteroid 2009 DD45 – Seen Here in a PROMPT Image Taken Only 3 Days After its Discovery. This Asteroid Passed within 75,000 km of Earth (5 Times Closer than the Moon) 50 Meters Wide...Impact would be Equivalent to 20 Megatons of TNT, or 1,000 Hiroshima Atomic Bombs. And This Was a Small One! Small, Flexible Robotic Telescopes are Ideal for Monitoring Near-Earth Asteroids...Could Save the Earth One Day! CHilean Automatic Supernova sEarch (CHASE) 43 supernovae discovered since March 2007 Robotic Telescopes Ideal for Monitoring Many Galaxies Every Night Supernovae Can Tell Us How Fast the Universe is Accelerating, And What its Ultimate Fate Will Be... SN 2009ao in NGC 2939, discovered by CHASE in early March, 2009, using PROMPT-5. We Also Take Pretty Pictures... Spiral Galaxy NGC 2613 6 hr exposure Emission Nebulae NGC 2014/2020 1.5 hr exposure Thackery Globules in Emission Nebula IC 2944 7.5 hr exposure Skynet Educational Interface