| NSF Org: |
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 4, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 5, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 0959447 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Gary Schmidt
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | March 15, 2010 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2013 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,795,854.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,795,854.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| ARRA Amount: | $1,795,854.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200 CHAPEL HILL NC US 27599-5023 (919)966-3411 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200 CHAPEL HILL NC US 27599-5023 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Major Research Instrumentation |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
In this day of modern large telescopes, small telescopes are still actively making significant contributions to our knowledge about the universe and its constituents, from Gamma Ray Bursts at the edge of the universe to nearby stars and solar system bodies. A consortium of colleges in the southeastern United States has assembled an impressive network of small telescopes spread around the globe under the leadership of Dr. Daniel Reichart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally designed for the specific purpose of rapidly following up on "transient events" - sudden changes on the sky due to the explosive death throes of stars for example - their telescopes are also heavily used by both professional researchers and their students at a number of colleges and universities in the southeast as well as by elementary and secondary educators and their students. Dr. Reichart and his team are now planning to add new capabilities to the network, providing increased coverage around the globe to monitor our changing skies. Optical telescopes work best at night of course, so if astronomers want to monitor objects in the sky around the clock, they must have telescopes spread around the world. To be sure of the coverage, it is also necessary to have multiple telescopes in case the weather is bad at some of the locations. The National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program is providing the funding for the new telescopes through its Division of Astronomical Sciences.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill built the original array of six PROMPT telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile in 2004 and 2005. After early successes using PROMPT to study distant cosmic explosions called gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), we began an effort to significantly broaden its capabilities and use in 2009. Leveraging non-federal funding from the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation and European partners, we received an additional $1.8M in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in 2010, which we used to add new telescopes and sites with wide-field optical, lucky optical, near-infrared, near-continuous simultaneous multi-wavelength, and radio capabilities. PROMPT is evolving from a GRB experiment to a broad-based facility for small-telescope research and education: PROMPT researchers now publish one peer-reviewed journal article per month and PROMPT educators now serve over 6,000 students per year.
Specifically, we have expanded PROMPT to include: (1) a new, 32-inch diameter robotic telescope at CTIO, with wide-field optical, lucky optical, and near-infrared imaging capabilities; (2) four new, 17-inch diameter robotic telescopes at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, enabling near-continuous, simultaneous multi-wavelength observing of southern hemisphere targets, as well as live observing for education and public engagement in the United States; and (3) a 20-meter diameter radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, including the development of a radio version of Skynet, our telescope control and web-based, dynamic queue scheduling software.
Last Modified: 02/18/2014
Modified by: Daniel E Reichart
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