Under previous funding from NSF, astronomers at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill have built PROMPT (Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes), which consists of six 16-inch diameter robotic optical telescopes at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. To operate this, they have also have developed Skynet: web-based, dynamic queue scheduling and telescope control software capable of controlling many telescopes. The telescopes at Cerro Tololo are part of a wider Skynet Robotic Telescope Network that now spans three, and soon four, continents. Skynet is now being used to study a wide variety of transient and time-variable phenomena, including optical afterglows from gamma-ray bursts. This project will support the efforts of a senior software engineer who will (1) continue to develop Skynet's software; (2) integrate other telescopes into Skynet, growing its geographic and user-community footprints; and (3) lead the effort to expand Skynet's wavelength coverage to the near infrared with the addition of the PROMPT-7 telescope at Cerro Tololo.
This effort is expected significantly improve the ability to study gamma-ray bursts and other phenomena. It will also augment the research and research training that is being carried out by Skynet's broader user community, primarily on transient and time-variable phenomena. Over the past three years, approximately 18,000 North Carolina high school students have used Skynet to satisfy state Earth and environmental science graduation requirements and an additional 12,000 middle and elementary school students, as well as members of the general public, have used an introductory version of Skynet's interface to request observations with PROMPT. In this project, these efforts will be broadened to include undergraduate students and to extend the education and outreach efforts at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
INTELLECTUAL MERIT: Supported primarily by NSF awards, UNC-Chapel Hill has built and is now expanding upon "PROMPT" – twelve 16- to 32-inch diameter fully automated, or robotic, telescopes in the southern hemisphere – and "Skynet" – telescope control and web-based, dynamic queue scheduling software capable of controlling many telescopes simultaneously and most types of commercially available small telescope hardware. In partnership with other institutions, Skynet has enabled us to grow PROMPT into a network of small, robotic telescopes. The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network currently numbers 16 optical telescopes between 14 and 40 inches in diameter spanning South America, North America, and Europe, and a 20-meter diameter radio telescope in North America. Skynet has now taken over 4.8 million exposures (most for professional astronomers) for roughly 30,000 users (most are students). Originally designed to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), Skynet is now being used to study a wide variety of transient and time-variable phenomena. Over the past eight years, but mostly over the past 2 – 3 years, GRB and non-GRB research has resulted in 36 journal articles (including two in Nature, with another approximately dozen in preparation across the network), three conference proceedings, over 300 observing reports (GCN, CBET, IAUC, MPB, ATel), two doctoral dissertations, at least five masters theses, and at least four undergraduate honors theses. For example, Skynet is now the most successful discoverer of SNe in the southern hemisphere and the most successful tracker of NEOs in both hemispheres. Skynet’s user community consists of UNC-Chapel Hill; 12 North Carolina and southern Virginia undergraduate institutions, including three minority-serving institutions; UNC-Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (MPSC); through TAC processes, the US and Chilean optical astronomy communities; the growing number of institutions that and individuals who are putting non-PROMPT telescopes on Skynet; and their collaborators. These efforts will not only significantly impact UNC-Chapel Hill’s ability to study GRBs, they will significantly impact non-GRB research and research training that is being carried out by Skynet’s broader user community, primarily on transient and time-variable phenomena. Furthermore, these efforts will significantly grow this community, through the addition of new users’ telescopes, and through a partnership with the Whole Earth Telescope (WET) and its user community. Altogether, we hope to expand Skynet’s user community from approximately 100 researchers and research students to hundreds and from tens of thousands of young people and members of the general public to approximately 100,000. BROADER IMPACTS: Aside from UNC-Chapel Hill, most of Skynet’s research and research training users are from smaller institutions without comparable facilities – some do not even have campus telescopes. However, leveraged by PROMPT, our users have forged partnerships with users of other optical and radio telescopes around the world, and also of space telescopes. Skynet’s most successful education and public outreach (EPO) efforts have been carried out in partnership with MPSC. Over the past six years, thousands of North Carolina high school students have used Skynet to satisfy state Earth and environmental science graduation requirements and an additional 20,000 middle and elementary school students, as well as members of the general public, have used an introductory version of Skynet’s interface to request observations with PROMPT. We describe an array of EPO programs, many of them already underway, to broaden these successes to encompass undergraduate students and to better serve MPSC’s EPO missions.
