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X. Zhang (SSAI / NASA's GSFC), K. Carpenter (NASA's GSFC), C. Schrijver (LMATC)
The Stellar Imager (SI) is envisioned as a space-based, UV-optical interferometer composed of 10 or more one-meter class mirrors distributed with a maximum baseline of 0.5 km and providing a resolution of 60 micro-arcseconds at 1550 A. It will image stars and binaries with one hundred to one thousand resolution elements on their surfaces and enable long-term studies of stellar magnetic activity patterns and their evolution with time, for comparison with those on the sun. It will also sound their interiors through asteroseismology to image internal structure, differential rotation, and large-scale circulations. SI will enable us to understand the various effects of magnetic fields of stars, the dynamos that generate them, and the internal structure and dynamics of the stars in which they exist. The ultimate goal is to achieve the best-possible forecasting of solar activity on times scales ranging up to decades, and an understanding of the impact of stellar magnetic activity on life in the Universe. With substantial improvements in normal-incidence mirror coatings for the EUV, the concept could be extended into that shorter wavelength regime as well. Fitting naturally within the NASA long-term time line, SI complements defined missions, and with them will show us entire other solar systems, from the central star to their orbiting planets.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.