A few days ago, the multi-channel photometric survey telescope (Mengfei) developed by the Southwest Astronomical Research Institute of China was completed at the Gaomei Ancient Astronomical Observatory in Lijiang, Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and for the first time obtained the images of celestial bodies taken by blue, yellow and red channels at the same time.
According to reports, the sky survey is the starting point of astronomical research, and is the basis and premise for discovering and exploring new celestial bodies and new phenomena, and for in-depth study of the properties of various celestial bodies and their formation and evolution. Contemporary astronomical research has entered an era of vigorous development of multi-messenger, full-band, and large-scale surveys. A number of international surveys that are being implemented and will be carried out will detect tens of millions of metamorphosis and transient source candidates every night. How to quickly identify and classify these massive candidates in real time, and select the most significant sources for subsequent accurate measurement and research, is the main bottleneck facing time-domain astronomy.
Obtaining high-precision real-time color information is the key to breaking this bottleneck, which will play an important role in improving the reliability and efficiency of variable source and temporary source identification and classification. Accurate and real-time color will also make it possible to accurately determine the physicochemical properties (effective temperature, surface gravitational acceleration, metallicity, and age) of a large number of statistically unbiased star samples, providing important basic data for studying the structure, formation and evolution of stars, and revealing the structure, star group composition and ensemble history of galaxies and galaxies in general.
The Mengfei Sky Survey Telescope is the world's first large-field, multi-channel high-precision imaging survey telescope, with a field of view diameter of 2 degrees, and will be equipped with three large-scale target area and a total of 1 billion pixels of the spliced large-target electron-coupled detector camera, which can simultaneously shoot celestial images in blue, yellow and red channels, provide ultra-high-precision metering and color information of celestial objects, and record color documentaries of the movement and changes of cosmic celestial bodies. The project was approved on January 11, 2018, constructed in June 2021, and achieved simultaneous light output of blue, yellow and red channels for the first time on December 21, 2023.
Since the first light in October 2022, the telescope has been in trial operation for more than 1,800 hours, obtaining more than 70,000 scientific images, with a total data volume of about 11 tons of raw images, and obtaining important observation data. In the near future, the telescope will launch a one-year pilot survey. A dichroic cubic prism system covering the full field of view and a stitched large-format electron-coupled detector camera are already under development and are expected to be in place by the end of 2024.
Source: China Youth Daily client