The HEROIC program will build stronger connections among observatories and astronomers
Las Cumbres Observatory is pleased to announce that it is participating in a $2,300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that will fund a new communication service for astronomy called HEROIC. Dr. Andy Howell of LCO is a co-PI of the project and will lead the observatory’s participation in multi-messenger astronomy.
Historically, astronomers have used a single “messenger” to study the cosmos – light, which includes gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. In some cases they can add additional information from other “messengers” including cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. The first two are subatomic particles created in many astrophysical sources, including stars and supernovae. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime that occur when black holes or neutron stars orbit each other.
Multi-messenger astronomy sources are usually ones that change quickly and release massive amounts of energy, like the merger of two neutron stars to create a kilonova explosion, or the collapse of a star to produce a supernova.
Las Cumbres Observatory is a global network of robotic telescopes, purpose-built to study things that rapidly change in the sky, and is a leader in the area of multi-messenger astronomy.
Since multi-messenger sources can change quickly, rapid observations are critical to characterizing them. Until now, the critical information astronomers need to make quick observations has been scattered all over the web, delaying their response. The new HEROIC service from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications will provide the entire astrophysics community with a single destination to quickly see what facility can point to a source. Las Cumbres Observatory and the NSF NoirLab will be the first two facilities integrated into the HEROIC service. At a glance, astronomers will be able to see which of dozens of facilities can react rapidly to an alert from multi-messenger observations and quickly activate their telescopes before the fleeting information is gone forever.
For the full story of the HEROIC project, please see this press release from the NCSA.
LCO is looking forward to the exciting role it will play in the future of time-domain astronomy.
Dr. Andy Howell of Las Cumbres Observatory is the co-Principal Investigator on the NSF HEROIC project.
