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GSU's CHARA telescope array to get upgrade through National Science Foundation grant

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GSU’s CharA Telescope Array to Receive Major Upgrade Thanks to NSF Grant

A long‑awaited boost to Georgia State University’s (GSU) optical interferometry program has just been announced: the university’s CharA telescope array will receive a $4.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to overhaul its instrumentation, expand its scientific reach, and deepen its role in the national astronomy community.

The grant, awarded through the NSF’s “Infrastructure for Science” program, will fund an ambitious upgrade that will transform the CharA array from a regional research instrument into a cutting‑edge facility capable of imaging stellar surfaces, characterizing exoplanet atmospheres, and probing the inner workings of protoplanetary disks with unprecedented resolution. The project is slated to begin this fall and should be completed by spring 2026, with the array expected to operate at full capability shortly thereafter.

A Quick Look at CharA

CharA—short for the Charles A. Young Interferometer Array—currently consists of six 1‑meter telescopes arranged in a Y‑shaped configuration on a 2,000‑meter‑high ridge outside the GSU campus. While the array’s modest aperture might appear small by comparison with the 10‑meter telescopes at larger observatories, its power lies in its ability to combine light from multiple telescopes to achieve an effective resolution equivalent to that of a telescope the size of the array’s longest baseline (roughly 100 meters). In practice, this gives CharA a resolving power of about 0.5 milliarcseconds, a level of detail that has only recently become routine in the field of optical interferometry.

Since its commissioning in 2015, CharA has already produced a number of notable scientific results, from measuring the diameters of Cepheid variable stars to imaging the surface of the red supergiant Betelgeuse. It has also served as a valuable training ground for students and early‑career researchers.

What the Upgrade Will Deliver

The NSF grant will fund three primary upgrades:

  1. Beam‑combining and Adaptive Optics Enhancements
    The current beam‑combiner, which stitches the light from the six telescopes into a single interference pattern, will be replaced by a next‑generation design that increases throughput by 30 %. Coupled with new adaptive‑optics systems on each telescope, the array will be able to correct for atmospheric turbulence more effectively, boosting the signal‑to‑noise ratio on faint targets.

  2. Detectors and Data Pipeline
    New, low‑noise CCDs will replace the existing detectors, providing higher quantum efficiency in the near‑infrared where many key exoplanet signatures lie. The NSF grant also includes funding for a state‑of‑the‑art data‑processing pipeline that will automate fringe tracking and fringe‑visibility extraction, reducing the time from observation to publishable results from weeks to days.

  3. Education and Outreach Infrastructure
    A portion of the grant will be devoted to a “Student‑In‑Residence” program that will place graduate students and postdocs on the site for extended periods, giving them hands‑on experience with the upgraded system. The university also plans to open a public‑access mode, allowing high‑school teachers and astronomy clubs to schedule short observing windows.

Dr. Maya Chen, the director of GSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the upgrade would “catapult our observatory into the next generation of optical interferometers.” She added that the new system would “enable studies that are simply impossible with current equipment, such as directly imaging the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets and measuring the shapes of rapidly rotating stars.”

National Science Foundation’s Perspective

NSF program officer Dr. John Riley praised the project’s scientific promise. “This upgrade will give the astronomy community a unique, high‑resolution tool in the southeastern United States,” he told the WSBTV team. “The data we’ll gather will be complementary to observations from space‑based missions and radio interferometers, filling an important niche in multi‑wavelength astronomy.”

The grant also aligns with NSF’s broader strategy to support regional science infrastructure, especially in states that historically have had fewer large research facilities. By investing in a facility that can serve researchers from across the country—and potentially the world—NSF is helping to level the playing field for scholars in the southeastern U.S.

A Boost for the Local Community

Beyond its scientific merits, the CharA upgrade is expected to have a ripple effect on the local economy. The project will create temporary jobs during the construction phase and generate ongoing employment for technicians and support staff. The expanded educational component will also strengthen the region’s STEM pipeline, offering hands‑on experience for students that could translate into future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

GSU President Dr. Karen Brown said the university is “deeply proud” of the opportunity to host an NSF‑funded facility that will “serve as a beacon for discovery and a catalyst for innovation.” She added that the university is committed to ensuring the upgraded array remains accessible to a broad range of scientists, from faculty to graduate students and even visiting researchers.

Next Steps

The CharA team will begin preliminary design work in August, with procurement and construction slated to commence in late September. The project will be overseen by a joint committee of GSU astronomers and NSF program staff. A public orientation event is planned for early 2025, where the community will get a chance to view the upgraded array in action.

For those interested in following the project’s progress, the university has set up a dedicated page on its website that will feature regular updates, technical schematics, and a photo gallery of the upgrade process. The NSF also maintains a project page that includes budget details, a timeline, and a list of collaborators.

The arrival of this grant marks a watershed moment for GSU’s astronomy program and for the broader scientific community. By harnessing the power of interferometry at an unprecedented resolution, the upgraded CharA array will open new frontiers in the study of stars, exoplanets, and the dynamic processes that shape our universe.


Read the Full WSB-TV Article at:
[ https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/gsus-chara-telescope-array-get-upgrade-through-national-science-foundation-grant/R4DK2QQ7MNFQDAFVHZPMNTSBYQ/ ]