NOVA Phase 6 Instrumentation Call Presentations 3 April 2024
Dear NOVA community,
At the end of last year we announced the NOVA Phase 6 instrumentation call. To foster an open and transparent review process and to facilitate the reviewers, we are organizing a day on which all proposers will present their submission. This will be a hybrid (in-person/online) event on Wednesday April 3, 2024. The in-person part will take place in Nijmegen, in the Maria Montessori building (Thomas van Aquinostraat 4). The draft program is listed below. The presentations will be 15 minutes followed by 10 minutes Q&A.
We kindly ask everyone who wishes to attend (either in-person or online) to register via the button below. The live-stream-link for the event will be shared with participants who have registered.
Looking forward to see many of you (digitally) on April 3rd, on behalf of the NOVA Board and Directorate,
Thomas Wijnen
NOVA Instrumentation Coordinator
Registration has closed
Michiel Rodenhuis
Thomas Wijnen
Session 1: Element 1
Floris van der Tak
The detection of >5000 exoplanets raises the question how many planets are habitable to life as we know it. Current facilities (such as JWST) are able to probe the atmospheres of extrasolar gas giants, while planned facilities will allow super-Earth transit observations (ARIEL) and direct detection of rocky planets in reflected OIR starlight (METIS, HWO). However, characterization of the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets requires direct detection of their thermal emission in the mid-infrared, which wavelength range is also rich in proposed biosignatures. The LIFE initiative (Large Interferometer For Exoplanets) is a concept for ESA's L5 mission, which will take mid-infrared spectra of ~400 exoplanets by nulling interferometry, including ~40 terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of their host stars. We propose to establish NOVA as a central entity in the development of this ground-breaking concept. An optical engineer will optimize the array configuration of the interferometer, and specify optical tolerances for the components up to the detector, which is essential input for industry to provide cost estimates. On the hardware side, we will build an advanced cryogenic setup and use this to develop hysteretic deformable mirrors for application in LIFE. These contributions make NOVA a key player in the LIFE mission, which will provide a major step forward in our understanding of the habitability of exoplanets.
Andrey Baryshev
This proposal addresses the enduring contribution of the Netherlands (NL) to the High Spectral Resolution Instrument (HSI) for the provisional Far-Infrared Spectroscopy Space Telescope (FIRSST) space mission. FIRSST is an observatory proposed to NASA in response to a PROBE space mission call, scheduled for launch in 2032 with a cost cap of $1 billion. The FIRSST mission, led by PI Asantha Cooray, will feature a cryogenically cooled 2-meter class main dish equipped with state-of-the-art high-resolution spectrometer instruments. Its field of regard covers half of space in the anti-solar direction, making it highly effective for infrared follow-ups. The main unique characteristic of FIRSST among other PROBE proposals is its high spectral resolution. FIRSST will have an extensive Principal Investigator (PI) science program as well as a Guest Observer (GO) science program, catering to the needs of all three NOVA science networks, with an emphasis on Network One themes. Alongside its unprecedented high spectral resolution and sensitivity, FIRSST will also offer low spectral resolution and mapping modes.
One of FIRSST's key instruments is HSI, a European contribution instrument led by PI M. Wiedner from the Paris Observatory. NL is part of the consortium, which includes the same partners as the Herschel HIFI instrument. NL's role is to conduct a detailed optical and mechanical design of the instrument. The effort required for this work is requested from this proposal's Element 1. The current cost estimate for the required effort exceeds the €200k cost cap of Element 1. We plan to commence the Phase A study in the first year and secure additional funding from NWO, NSO, and ESA sources, considering NASA's provisional positive decision about the Phase A study, which would significantly increase our chances of obtaining the funds. Approval of this proposal will enable a visible NL role (Deputy PI of the instrument) in the next Far Infrared space mission. The final decision on the funds will depend on NASA's selection of candidates for the Phase-A study, a process expected to take two years.
11:05 - 11:25 Break
Eline Tolstoy
We propose to use using Op-IR seed funding to contribute to a conceptual design study of a 12m wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST), with simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree) and high multiplex (20,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS) facility with both low- and high-resolution modes, and a giant panoramic integral field spectrograph (IFS). The WST top-level requirements place it far ahead of existing and planned facilities (see Fig. 1). In just 5 years of operation, the WST MOS will target 250 million galaxies and 25 million stars at medium resolution plus 2 million stars at high resolution, and 4 billion spectra with the IFS. WST will fill a gap in the astronomical landscape and will have strong synergies with several major new facilities (e.g., SKA). It will achieve transformative results in most areas of astrophysics: e.g. the nature and expansion of the dark Universe, the formation and role of first stars and galaxies, the study of the dark and baryonic material in the cosmic web, the formation history of the Milky Way and dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, characterisation of exoplanet hosts as well as of transient phenomena, including gravitational wave sources detected by the Einstein Telescope. WST telescope and instruments will be designed as an integrated system and mostly use existing technology, aiming to minimise its carbon footprint and impact on local environment. Our ambition is to make WST the next ESO project after the Extremely Large Telescope.
The Netherlands is presently involved in the European Union Horizon Infrastructure grant proposal (due 12th March
2024) to support matching funds for the technical studies where the optical/IR group has been preselected to carry out specific work packages. Specifically to develop the telescope M2 mount structure and the integral field spectrograph layout configurations, as well as the telescope M1 structures, currently projected to be exact copies of the ELT M1 support structures.
Rudy Wijnands
The NOVA near-UV (NUV) Explorer (NUX) is a proposed innovative ground-based, large field-of-view, transient-searching
observing facility consisting of 4 telescopes that will operate in the bluest band possible from Earth (300-350 nm; no existing surveying facility observes in this wavelength range). The main scientific goal is to improve our understanding of the processes that power fast (hours-days) hot transients, such as shock-breakout and shock-cooling emission of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events. NUX will use 4 RASA Celestron telescopes (with a diameter of 36 cm) refitted to be NUV sensitive.
During Phase 5, the Dutch research school for astronomy (NOVA) has given the NUX project 165 kEuro funding for a feasibility study to make a NUV transparent Schmidt-corrector plate (to replace the standard one included with the telescope) and to create a preliminary design of the complete system. The double-asphere corrector plate was successfully manufactured by the NOVA Optical Infrared (OIR) group in Dwingeloo. In May 2023, the project had a successful Preliminary Design Review and the main recommendation was that the NUX team should construct a working prototype telescope to test further technical and performance aspects.
To accomplish this, here we request funding through the NOVA Phase 6 instrumentation call, element 1, to cover the work to be done by the OIR group to construct such a prototype. Together with already secured funding from the UvA to cover the hardware costs, we will be able to create the prototype and test its performance on the mountains La Silla (ESO observatory; Chile) and El Leoncito Astronomical Complex (Argentina), both possible sites to permanently host NUX. Those test observations will also allow us to characterise the NUV characteristics of the Earth’s atmosphere (i.e., the NUV extinction and how it varies with Zenith angle and in time; the NUV night sky brightness). The ultimate goal of constructing and testing the prototype is to conclusively demonstrate the proof of concept and the feasibility of the used technique (in combination with the determined NUV characteristics of the atmosphere) to observe NUV from Earth. This will open up a new ground-based observing window and therefore has a high probability for exciting breakthroughs in the field of extreme cosmic explosions.
Michael Janssen
In the lead-up to first light in 2028, we are proposing a state-of-the-art broadband millimetre receiver for the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT). The AMT project is supported by the Netherlands, University of Namibia, Oxford University, University of Turku, and the Event Horizon Telescope Consortium (EHTC). For the EHT, the AMT will add the crucial spatial coverage to enable dynamic (movie) image reconstructions of the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, solidifying the Dutch contribution to the array and enabling much stronger tests of General Relativity (GR). Taking inflation into account, the current AMT budget can only cover a single 230 GHz band receiver. With the proposed broadband receiver, we follow the overall VLBI developments towards multi-frequency arrays. For the EHT in particular, the pursued multi-frequency capabilities will significantly improve our tests of GR, plasma, accretion, and jet
physics. The physics of plasma and accretion/jet launching are relevant for many other classes of astrophysical objects,
and multi-frequency EHT observations will shine light on these fundamental couplings.
Because EHT is only used <month/year, single-dish science will occupy most of the observing time, where the broadband receiver will be transformative. For transient follow-up, we will obtain the required sensitivity for measuring spectral evolution. For galactic astrometry, we can directly link the mm radiation from Sgr A*’s black hole shadow to its NIR quiescence and flaring emission seen by GRAVITY through common maser-bearing reference stars. Additionally, the wide spectral coverage facilitates the search of molecular tracers of the baryonic life cycle. Compared to ALMA, the AMT will have a broader simultaneous frequency coverage and allow for long-term monitoring observations.
All in all, the proposed AMT broadband receiver will support a wide range of science across the NOVA networks. The ambitious project for a multi-band receiver can only be realised with the expertise and help from NOVA. From this instrumentation call, we wish to utilise element 1 for the front-end conceptual and detailed design phase and element 3 for the manufacturing of the cryostat and front-end optics. The overall duration of this project will be two years. We intend to participate in the element 2 call (and pursue other sources of funding in the meantime) for the production of ALMA band 6 and ALMA band 2 receiver cartridges, which will be fully technically developed by mid-2026 by the NOVA submm group.
12:40 - 13:30 Lunch
Session 2: Element 3
Ko-Ju Chuang
Leiden Laboratory for Astrophysics (LLfA) hosts four ultra-high vacuum setups – CRYOPAD, SURFRESIDE, MATRIICES, and IRASIS – with strong supports from NOVA since phases 2, 3, 4, and 5 to experimentally study the astrochemistry under fully controlled laboratory conditions. The overall aim is to better understand physicochemical processes occurring on interstellar dust grains, providing a solid laboratory base for astronomical observations and models carried out in Network 2 (themes 2 & 3). The outputs of this research have revolutionized molecular astrophysics, shedding light on the content of molecular complexity in space, the reaction network of interstellar molecules, and the transition dynamics between gases and dust under harsh space conditions. The experimental data of solid-state IR spectroscopy have been routinely used to identify the highly molecular-characterized IR observations toward star-forming regions. The studied reaction networks have served to interpret and guide astronomical observations in terms of a consistent physicochemical picture and to make predictions for future programs. As shown in the past, laboratory data have proven to be a major asset in obtaining observing time on advanced telescopes like ALMA and JWST. The derived quantitative results are crucial input parameters for astrochemical models, visualizing the chemical evolution over the astronomical time scale of million-to-billion years. The research at LLfA serves an important role in NOVA to connect the observational snapshots and astronomical simulations of different stages in star and planet formation.
With the past 20 years of experience in the solid-state laboratory astrochemistry in Leiden, the new goal in NOVA 6 is to leap into the next phase, addressing the formation and destruction of complex organic molecules, specifically chemical evolution from clouds to planetary systems. Instrumentation funding is requested to upgrade the four setups with newly available advanced techniques and to implement a brand-new setup, ANANAS, to the lineup. For the first time, it will be possible to study the evolution of interstellar ice and dust simultaneously in the Netherlands. NOVA’s support will sharpen the tools of CRYOPAD, SURFRESIDE, MATRIICES, and IRASIS to tackle well-defined scientific questions in astrochemistry, such as VUV processing in protoplanetary disks, identification of molecular complexity, catenation chemistry forming long-chain compounds, and solid-state spectroscopy of ammonium salts, respectively. The NOVA 6 also aligns with the new chapter of LLfA moving to a new Science Faculty building with updated infrastructures and full technical support (mid-2024). Modest funding guarantees that the lab will keep the competitive momentum to participate in new international-level consortia based on previously established INTERCAT and ETNs (LASSIE and EUROPAH) and take the lead in laboratory research in protoplanetary disk chemistry.
Simon Portegies Zwart
AMUSE provides general platform for simulating complex phenomena in astrophysics. No other package brings so many production quality numerical simulation codes together under one unified interface. AMUSE has succeeded where other packages have failed: It is the only true modular multi-scale and multi-physics simulation-environment. Its core technology underlies the development of sibling software environments for Oceanographic (OMUSE), Hydrological (HyMUSE), Biology and geophysics (the two latter have alpha-version implementations).
More than 60 professional simulation codes are assembled under the AMUSE umbrella. The interface allows each code to exchange information and concur at runtime without interruption. The unique code-coupling patterns enable these codes to seamlessly cooperate, allowing complex multi-physics simulations with packages that were not designed to exchange information. The coupling of optimized production-quality simulation codes, the flexibility of the interface structure and the diversity of its coupling strategies have been running production up to Tier 1
supercomputers.
AMUSE is actively used within NOVA for training MSc and graduate students, for demonstrations, and most importantly
for astronomical research. Within the current funding schemes, it is almost impossible to acquire support for the maintenance and further development of existing software instruments, such as AMUSE.
We seek funding for the further development of AMUSE. We desire to expand its functionality by incorporating numerical methods for astro-chemistry, and planetary atmospheres. These expansions allow us to perform complex coupled simulations on the formation of planets through gas and pebble accretion, the interaction between planets, their disks, their host’s stellar wind, and the long-term evolution of planetary atmospheres.
Lingyu Wang & Willem Jellema
PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) is a far-infrared (far-IR) observatory for the next decade, carrying
a wideband spectrometer FIRESS and a multi-band spectrophotometric imager/polarimeter PRIMAger. Thanks to its
massive sensitivity leap, wavelength range between 24 and 235 μm accessible only from space, and orders of magnitude
increase in mapping speed, PRIMA is uniquely poised to open untouched parameter space and transform our understanding of galaxy evolution. One of its top science goals is to probe the co-evolution between supermassive black holes (SMBH) and their host galaxies. Recent JWST results have highlighted a critical missing piece in our knowledge of galaxy evolution, namely the ubiquitous nature of dust and active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the early Universe. PRIMA will carry out unprecedented large galaxy surveys with PRIMAger which offers first-of-its-kind hyperspectral narrow-band and rapid imaging with continuous coverage from 25 to 84 μm. This wavelength range bridges the gap between JWST and ALMA and allows us to derive estimates of dust-obscured BH accretion rate and star-formation rate out to the epoch of reionisation, based on decomposition of far-IR spectral energy distributions.
To achieve unprecedented spectro-photometric mapping speed in the far-IR, a Linear Variable FIlter (LVF) will be the key enabling component. If an LVF is placed in front of the detector focal plane, we get a position dependent bandpass filter. Such dispersive component divides the camera FoV in “spectral columns”, and converts the camera into a multicolor mapping instrument. In the far-IR, LVF technology is not yet available, but SRON has developed an alternative prototype to overcome this technology gap. The filter concept provides an approximation to a flat-top filter characteristic with a spectral resolving power of about 10. The technology and process tolerances will limit the ultimate performance and filter specifications must be traded off against the scientific requirements. It is therefore crucial to understand how the design of the hyperspectral imaging observing mode and its corresponding LVF specification will
translate into observable scientific quantities and how these scientific metrics are related to the technical filter specifications.
The overarching goal of this proposal is to understand how we best implement the hyperspectral imaging capability, and how we can optimize for best possible scientific performance by a compliant and feasible filter specification with demonstrated filter technology. The proposed work should lead to a consolidated filter specification and astronomical validation of the hyperspectral imaging mode. Moreover, the proposed work will deliver the first prototypes of algorithms that can be used to obtain and process hyperspectral data cubes and derive first science data products from simulated observations.
14:45 - 15:05 Break
Katie Mulrey
The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays remains one of the largest open questions in astrophysics. Understanding the phenomena that can produce these particles is part of the Strategic Plan for Astronomy in the Netherlands in the coming decade. We will address this question by using the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) to measure the “air showers” that result when cosmic rays interact in the Earth’s atmosphere. As a cosmic-ray detector, the SKA will provide us with measurements of orders of magnitude more detail than we currently have access to, unrivaled by any other experiment, existing or planned. These measurements will tell us about the extreme astrophysical conditions in which cosmic rays are accelerated, which places this project in NOVA Network 3.
Cosmic-ray detection at radio telescopes requires buffering raw data and providing an external trigger to prompt readout. The buffering requirements are already in place as part of SKA-low functionality. We will build an array of 20 particle detectors to provide the external trigger based on the detection of air shower particles. The detectors will be built at Radboud University and then installed at the SKA-low site. We will incorporate the particle detector signal into standard SKA digitizing equipment and provide firmware necessary to form a trigger with support from the Radboud Radio Lab (RRL) and SKA engineers. The total cost for this project is 394 k€, 90 k€ of which will be provided in-kind by our international partners, bringing the NOVA contribution to 304 k€. The time to build the array and implement the trigger is expected to be 2 years, providing first science data in mid 2026.
The applicants in this proposal are leaders in the High Energy Cosmic Particles Working Group at the SKA. With our international partners, we have the expertise necessary to complete this project and take a primary role in the science
analyses that will follow. We foresee that the SKA cosmic-ray program will continue to grow, based on this project, leading to ample funding opportunities in the future. This modest investment from NOVA will establish the cosmic-ray program at the SKA and put the Netherlands in a leadership position in the field.
Phil Uttley
We are leading an effort to develop X-ray interferometry for use in space. If successful, we will see gains of at least 3 orders of magnitude in spatial resolution over current instrumentation, which will enable imaging of many energetic astrophysical environments such as the coronae of nearby stars, the accretion disks and winds of X-ray binary systems and be able to resolve pc-scale accreting SMBH binaries from across the visible universe. We are well-poised to make this leap forwards following the recommendation of our approach by ESA’s Voyage 2050 programme, which will likely fund development of critical gyroscope technologies. Here our focus is on developing the X-ray interferometer (XRI) optical and fringe acquisition technologies, following a compact design which we are currently building at SRON, with ultra-flat Si mirrors provided by industry partners Cosine. Crucial to success is the development of simulation software, not only to develop the science case by simulating fake images of different astrophysical sources, but also to further develop and test the lab set-up and computational tools for fringe-finding and tracking, both in the lab and in space. Here we propose to supplement our practical lab work with a project to develop this simulation and fringe acquisition and control technology, which would be carried out by a PhD researcher at UvA in collaboration with the PIs and the current PhD researcher from TU Delft who is developing the lab experiments. We request funds from NOVA to cover the salary cost, equipment and travel of the PhD researcher over 4 years. This investment would allow us to build significantly on the initial detection of fringes that is expected in 2025, so that we could quickly demonstrate the technologies needed for a working space interferometer. The proposed research would also provide a bridge to a further expansion of our research group later this decade as we build on the detection of fringes and work towards an M or L-class mission proposal in the early 2030s, and an earlier small demonstrator mission, if the work proposed here shows that it is feasible.
15:55 - 18:00 Drinks