 |
SIM is a telescope
scheduled for launch in 2008 by NASA which will measure the positions
and distances to stars several hundred times more accurately than the
current capability.
This mission is designed to answer such questions
as: How old is the universe? How big is it? Are there other planets
like the Earth around nearby stars? To answer these questions, NASA
has selected a number of key projects, which will be given a
substantial fraction of the observing time on SIM. One of these
key projects is headquarted at Dartmouth, and is designed to determine
the distances and ages of the oldest stars in the galaxy. This
project will determine an accurate estimate for the minimum age of the
universe, help calibrate the zero point of the extragalactic distance scale
and will further our knowledge of the how the Milky Way
was formed.
To the left is a picture of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. This is a collection of ancient stars in orbit about the Milky Way. Our key project will determine the distance to this cluster to an accuracy of 2%, allowing us to determine its age to an accuracy of 6%. Further details of the project are given below. |