Projects / Programmes
Physical parameters of stellar evolution with large spectral data sets
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 1.02.00 |
Natural sciences and mathematics |
Physics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| P520 |
Natural sciences and mathematics |
Astronomy, space research, cosmic chemistry |
| P190 |
Natural sciences and mathematics |
Mathematical and general theoretical physics, classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity, gravitation, statistical physics, thermodynamics |
(1) astronomy and astrophysics, (2) general theory of relativity, (3) astronomical spectroscopy, (4) astronomical telescopes and spectrographs, (5) reduction and interpretation of large digital data sets, (6) measurement of distances and time in the universe and influence of gravitation on macroscopic scales, (7) exact time measurement, (8) physics of binary stars, (9) cosmochemistry of stellar atmospheres and interstellar medium, (10) mission GAIA of the European Space Agency, (11) spectroscopic survey RAVE, (12) origin and evolution of our Galaxy, (13) physics of active galactic nuclei, (14) observation of immediate vicinity of black holes and neutron stars.
Researchers (10)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Stellar evolution is a sequence of phases of varying duration; some last for only thousands, others for billions of years. Our knowledge of important but brief events is therefore rather limited. It turns out that these events are crucial for understanding of the origin and evolution of our Galaxy and for the formation of chemical elements that build our Sun and even ourselves. Here we propose to take advantage of our preference access to four large astronomical data sets: (i) GAIA, cornerstone 6 mission of the European Space Agency, (ii) spectroscopic collaboration RAVE, (iii) the largest robotic telescope in the world built by the Liverpool university and (iv) project CLYPOS at the Mexican INAOE institute.
A number of binary stars will have a complete set of their observables accurately determined for the first time. This will significantly enlarge the number of objects with basic parameters like mass, luminosity, and temperature determined at a 1 per-cent level. A combination of photometric and spectroscopic techniques, introduced here for the first time, will permit an accurate and model independent distance determination of binary stars, even those in other galaxies. A large number of spectroscopic binaries is bound to be discovered by the RAVE project. On the other hand significant emphasis will be placed on a dedicated study of two brief phases of stellar evolution: pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. A dedicated stroboscopic system developed at our institute will be used together with an exact time-reference standard to study the location of optical emission in pulsars and to discern between different theoretical scenarios. Liverpool robotic telescope is partly building on our extensive experience of automatic telescope design. The telescope will be used for photometric and spectroscopic discovery and monitoring of a large number of optical counterparts to gamma-ray bursts. Statistically significant sample will permit a better understanding of these violent phenomena in the context of evolution of compact stars.
Early access to the data is a consequence of our technological involvement in a certain project: normally we contributed to the design, software support, and to data analysis and verification. Projects RAVE, CLYPOS and Liverpool robotic telescope started with initial observations in 2003. The GAIA mission, which is one of the largest undertakings of European astronomy, is bound to fly at the end of the decade - but its scientific optimization and potential access to the early data requires our present involvement.
