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Citizen scientists enlisted to help findpulsars
平民科学家参与寻找脉冲星
March 25, 2009 By Lauren Gold
日期：2009年3月25日
作者：Lauren Gold
正文翻译：
Arecibo pulsar survey is using 50,000 PCs worldwide to generatesupercomputing power
阿雷西波天文台的脉冲星寻找项目使用了世界上5万台计算机
In the search for yet-undiscovered pulsarsor ultra-fast spinning neutron stars, a grand-scale sky survey at the Cornell-managed Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is now taking advantage of the combined processing power ofpersonal computers around the world.
为了找寻至今还未发现的脉冲星，或者超高速旋转的中子星，在康奈尔大学管理下位于波多黎各的阿雷西波天文台现在进行着一个宏大的项目。这个项目得益于世界范围内大量个人电脑的共同计算。
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Depiction of a pulsar orbiting a companionneutron star or black hole, shown as the curved spacetime associated with thecompanion's mass. By measuring the pulsar's orbit to high precision, scientistscan measure the accuracy of General Relativity and determine the companion'smass.
Michael Kramer and SuW
图片说明：围绕中子星或者黑洞的脉冲性轨道，通常会由于其伴星的质量产生弧形的时空扭曲。精确的研究脉冲性的轨道，科学家可以验证广义相对论的正确性，并且确定伴星的质量。Michael Kramer and SuW
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The PALFA Survey, a sky survey using the Arecibo L-band Feed Array(ALFA) -- a system of detectors with seven feeds that enables researchers toimage large swaths of sky -- has joined forces with Einstein@Home, an effortbased at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Einstein@Home involvesmore than 200,000 people worldwide who donate time on their computers to searchfor gravitational waves from unknown pulsars.
脉冲星找寻计划（PALFASurvey）使用的是阿雷西波L波段馈电阵列（ALFA），拥有7根馈电天线，可以观测一个细长带装的天空。他们也在和来自威斯康星-密尔沃基大学(UWM)的Einstein@Home项目合作。世界上超过20万人通过Einstein@Home项目一起为寻找来自脉冲星的引力波寻找证据。
Using new methods developed at the AlbertEinstein Institute (AEI) in Hannover, Germany,Einstein@Home will search for radio pulsars that are part of binary starsystems with orbital periods as short as 15 minutes. Conventional searches forradio pulsars lose sensitivity if the pulsars are in orbits shorter than aboutone hour. But the enormous computational capabilities of the Einstein@Homeproject -- equivalent to a cluster of more than 50,000 computers -- make itpossible to search for pulsars in binary systems with significantly shorterperiods.
Einstein@Home项目按照由在德国汉诺威的爱因斯坦研究所所发明的新方法来寻找作为轨道周期小于15分钟的双星系统的一部分的射电脉冲星。传统的射电脉冲星的搜索方法在对于轨道周期小于1小时的双星系统通常无效。但是Einstein@Home项目中大约5万台计算机所提供的强大计算能力使得对于这种轨道周期特别小的双星系统中的脉冲星也变得可能。
"Discovery of a pulsar orbiting aneutron star or black hole, with a sub-hour orbital period, would providetremendous opportunities to test general relativity and to estimate how oftensuch binaries merge," said Jim Cordes, professor of astronomy at Cornelland chair of the Arecibo PALFA Consortium.
康奈尔大学天文学教授，阿雷西波PALFA项目联盟主席Jim Cordes说到：“对于轨道周期为亚小时的那些围绕中子星或者黑洞运转的脉冲星的轨道的发现，为广义相对论的检验提供了绝佳的机会。同时也可以预测这样的双星系统多久会发生合并。”
Einstein@Home participants willautomatically receive work for both the radio and gravitational-wave searches.
Einstein@Home项目的参与者会自动同时的收到射电项目和引力波项目。
"We hope to discover at least a fewnew radio pulsars per year," said Bruce Allen, director of AEI. "Weexpect that most of the project's participants will be eager to do both typesof searches."
爱因斯坦研究所主任BruceAllen说：“我们希望每年至少发现几个新的射电电脉冲星”
“我们也希望所有项目参与者对于两种项目同样感兴趣。”
"Combining the sensitivity of theworld's largest radio telescope with the distributed computing capabilities ofEinstein@Home creates a powerful partnership for discovery," added DanaLehr, program manager for the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the NationalScience Foundation (NSF). Cornell's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Centermanages Arecibofor the NSF.
“世界上最大的射电望远镜和Einstein@Home项目的分布式计算的联合将为天文发现增添强大动力”，国家科学基金会天文学分部主管，Dana Lehr这样补充说到。康奈尔大学的国家天文学和电离层中心代表国家科学基金会管理着阿雷西波天文台。
All data for PALFA, which began in 2004 andis one of three ongoing sky surveys using the ALFA receiver, are archived anddispensed by the Cornell Center for AdvancedComputing.
2004年启动的PALFA项目，作为ALFA观测器最初的三个太空观测项目，其数据由康奈尔中心进行储存，并为进一步计算进行分发。
"The Einstein@Home computing resourcesare a perfect complement to the data management systems at the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing and the otherPALFA institutions," Cordes said.
“Einstein@Home项目的计算能力为康奈尔中心和其他PALFA研究所的高级计算提供了很好的补充。”Cordes说到。
Gravitational waves were first predicted byEinstein in 1917 as a consequence of his general theory of relativity but havenever been directly detected.
引力波最初由爱因斯坦于1917年根据其广义相对论理论所预测，但从未被直接观测到。
Radio pulsars are rapidly spinning neutronstars that emit a lighthouse-like beam of radio waves that sweeps past theEarth as frequently as 600 times per second. Radio pulsars in short-periodbinary systems are especially interesting because the effects of generalrelativity can be very strong. The discovery of new pulsars in short-periodbinaries would also improve estimates of the rates at which binary star systemsform and disappear in our galaxy as well as provide new targets to search forgravitational waves.
射电脉冲星是一种快速旋转的中子星，它发出的像灯塔的光束一样的无线电波，以每秒500次的速度扫过地球。由于广义相对论的强大影响力，短周期双星系统内的射电脉冲星备受关注。短周期射电脉冲星的发现也会增强我们对银河系内双星系统的形成和消亡预测的准确度。同时，也为引力波的研究提供了目标。
The large data sets from the survey arearchived and processed initially at Cornell and other PALFA institutions. Forthe Einstein@Home project, data are sent to AEI via high-speed network,preprocessed and then distributed to volunteers around the world. The resultsare returned to AEI, Cornell and UWM for further investigation.
研究中的大型数据集在康奈尔大学和其他PALFA研究机构进行储存和初步的处理。关于Einstein@Home项目的那一部分数据被使用高速网络传输至爱因斯坦研究所（AEI）进行处理并分发给全世界的志愿者。志愿者的运算结果返回到爱因斯坦研究所（AEI），康奈尔大学和威斯康星-密尔沃基大学进行进一步的研究。
The Arecibo Observatory is the largestsingle-aperture radio telescope on the planet and is used for studies ofpulsars, galaxies, solar system objects and the Earth's atmosphere.
阿雷西波天文台是世界上最大的单面口径射电望远镜，用来进行脉冲星、银河系、太阳系天体和地球大气的研究。
The NSF supports the work through grants toEinstein@Home; to PALFA; and through a cooperative agreement with Cornell tooperate the Arecibo Observatory.
国家科学基金会（NSF）对Einstein@Home项目、PALFA项目提供资金支持，并且通过一项合作协定，由康奈尔大学对阿雷西波天文台进行具体运行。
来源：http://www.equn.com/wiki/Citizen ... o_help_find_pulsars |
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发表于 2009-11-25 03:52:00
科技文，还望大家多多指教多多指教。。。。。站里高人很多阿。
发表于 2009-11-25 09:58:20
发表于 2009-11-25 19:01:25