Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS)

A bright supernova discovered by CRTS within the interacting Antennae galaxies. Click for larger images.

CACR is pleased to announce that an award of $890,000 from the National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Grants Program was made to the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) project. The CRTS is based on the special processing and analysis of a data stream from the ongoing NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which is cataloging near-earth objects and potential planetary hazard asteroids.  The CRTS leverages this existing data stream to discover and study objects and phenomena outside the solar system, opening a new discovery space for time-domain astrophysics at a greatly reduced cost. This project will provide a steady open stream of astronomical events, available to the entire community in real-time. This will be the first and only fully open synoptic sky survey data and event stream.

Exploration of the time domain – discovery and study of objects and phenomena changing on time scales ranging from seconds to years – is now one of the most exciting and rapidly growing fields of astronomy, touching on a broad and diverse spectrum of research areas, from the solar system and discoveries of extra-solar planets to the distant quasars, and from stellar astrophysics to cosmology and extreme relativistic astrophysics. Time domain information is essential for understanding some of the most interesting phenomena we observe. For example, we could not learn anything from a single picture of a supernova, or a single snapshot of a gamma-ray burst: the variability of stars aids to our understanding of their structure and evolution, motions of stars tell us about the structure of our galaxy, and so on.

The CRTS project is already making significant scientific discoveries. For example, CRTS recently found the most energetic supernova ever seen. This event appears to be an example of an extremely rare pair-instabilty supernova. The survey will aid the entire astronomical community in developing new scientific strategies and procedures in the area of large synoptic sky surveys, and develop further and exercise time-domain astronomy cyber-infrastructure within existing Virtual Observatory (VO) environment and framework.

Representing CACR’s expertise in time-domain astronomy, research scientist Andrew Drake created and manages the process for real-time data filtering and analysis, mining through the CSS data for astrophysical transients. Scientific areas of interest include beamed active galactic nuclei (blazars), unusual types of supernovae, fast transients, and an organized serendipitous approach to the discovery of new types of objects and phenomena. More information about the project can be found on the CRTS website.