The Advanced Spectral Library (ASTRAL) Project (PI = T. Ayres) consists of two Treasury Programs: the Cycle 18 Cool Stars (GO-12278) Program and the Cycle 21 Hot Stars (GO-13346) Program. The primary goal of these programs is to collect, for the use
of the astronomical community over the coming decades, a definitive set of representative, high-resolution (R~30,000-100,000), high signal/noise (S/N>100) spectra, with full UV coverage (~1150 - 3100 A) of prototypical stars across the HR diagram, utilizing the high-performance Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The Cycle 18 program obtained spectra of 8 F-M evolved late-type stars, while the Cycle 21 program is in the process of observing 21 early-type stars, which span a broad range of spectral types between early-O and early-A. All of these data will be available from the HST archive and, in post-processed and merged form, at http://casa.colorado.edu/~ayres/ASTRAL/. These data will enable investigations of a broad range of problems -- stellar, interstellar, and beyond -- for many years into the future. We describe here the details of the observing programs, including the program targets and the observing strategies utilized to optimize the quality of the spectra, and present some illustrative examples of the on-going scientific analyses, including a study of the outer atmospheres and winds of the two evolved M stars in the sample and a first look at a high definition UV spectrum of a magnetic chemically peculiar Ap star.
The Stellar Imager mission concept is a space-based UV/Optical interferometer designed to resolve surface magnetic activity and subsurface structure and flows of a population of Sun-like stars, in order to accelerate the development and validation of
a predictive dynamo model for the Sun and enable accurate long-term forecasting of solar/stellar magnetic activity.
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-mas angular resolution, UV/Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the details of the many dynamic
processes (e.g., variable magnetic fields, accretion, convection, shocks, pulsations, winds, and jets) that affect their formation, structure, and evolution. These observations can only be provided by long-baseline interferometers or sparse aperture telescopes in space, since the aperture diameters required are in excess of 500 m - a regime in which monolithic or segmented designs are not and will not be feasible - and since they require observations at wavelengths (UV) not accessible from the ground. Two mission concepts which could provide these invaluable observations are NASAs Stellar Imager (SI; http://hires.gsfc.nasa.gov/si/) interferometer and ESAs Luciola sparse aperture hypertelescope, which each could resolve hundreds of stars and stellar systems. These observatories will also open an immense new discovery space for astrophysical research in general and, in particular, for Active Galactic Nuclei (Kraemer et al. Decadal Survey Science Whitepaper). The technology developments needed for these missions are challenging, but eminently feasible (Carpenter et al. Decadal Survey Technology Whitepaper) with a reasonable investment over the next decade to enable flight in the 2025+ timeframe. That investment would enable tremendous gains in our understanding of the individual stars and stellar systems that are the building blocks of our Universe and which serve as the hosts for life throughout the Cosmos.
