Detection of Faint Space Object with Solid State Image Detectors

摘要

The primary focus of research during this funding period has been to obtain information with the highest signal-to-noise ratio from faint astronomical sources using a charge-coupled device (CCD). The starting point of the investigation was to determine the optimal sampling function for CCDs considering the noise spectrum characteristics of real devices; the noise spectrum of most CCDs ca n be accurately described by a combination of 1/f and white noise. Then, a CCD system was constructed so that all operating parameters could be easily adjusted. Some unexpected improvements in performance were obtained by optimizing the operating temperature and increasing the number of electrode voltages which could be independently set compared to other CCD systems. The next phase of the investigation was to develop an image processing system to extract, in a statistically correct way, as much information as possible from astronomical images. The system was then applied to problems ranging from speckle interferometry to global cosmolical tests including an investigation to determine the nature of the dark matter in the halos of spiral galaxies.