CHARA

CHARA images the mysterious 27-year eclipsing binary star system epsilon Aurigae - In a collaboration with astronomers from the University of Denver and the University of Michigan, the CHARA Array has resolved the thick disk surrounding a heavily obscured star that eclipses the supergiant primary of the eps Aur binary star system only once in a generation. This result, which appears in the April 8, 2010 issue of Nature, is described in a National Science Foundation press release. The Nature paper can be found here.

The CHARA Year Six Science Review was held at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute on the Caltech campus in Pasadena during March 9-11, 2010. The presentations from that gathering, and from earlier meetings, can be found here.

CHARA research is focused on the application of astronomical long-baseline optical/infrared interferometry to high resolution observations leading to the determination of the astrophysical properties of stars. The Center operates the CHARA Array, a six-telescope optical/infrared interferometric array on Mount Wilson, California. The CHARA Array is among the most powerful facilities of its kind in the world for studying stars and stellar systems at resolutions not previously available. Among the Array's "firsts" are:

First direct detection of gravity darkening on a single star (Regulus),

First direct measurement of the "P-factor" in the Baade-Wesselink method (δ Cep),

First detection of hot exozodiacal dust around a main-sequence star (Vega)

First model-independent measurement of an exoplanet diameter (HD 189733b),

First angular diameter for a halo population star (μ Cas),

First image of a single, main-sequence star (Altair),

First direct image of an interacting binary (β Lyr), and

Shortest period binary star system yet resolved (σ2 CrB - 1.14 days).

Built with funds from the National Science Foundation, Georgia State University, the W. M. Keck Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, ground was broken on July 13, 1996 at historic Mount Wilson Observatory. The facility was dedicated on October 4, 2000, and "first fringes," which demonstrated the technical feasibilty of CHARA's design, were obtained on September 19, 2001. Another three years of installation was required before the Array became fully operational in 2004, and routine, scheduled observing began in the spring of 2005.

Read more about the CHARA Array here and see our pictoral overview here.

Collaborative teams have joined with Georgia State University scientists to extend the science capabilities of the Array through "beam combination" instruments that provide for increased wavelength, spectral and polorimetric coverage. The greater CHARA collaboration presently includes: Georgia State University, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Observatoire de Paris, University of Michigan, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, University of Sydney, and Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur. Operating funding for CHARA is provided by the Division of Astronomical Sciences of the National Science Foundation and by the College of Arts and Sciences of Georgia State University.

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