Tianyu Project Overview

Background

The Tianyu Project (JUST-P) is a dedicated time-domain astronomy initiative led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Inspired by Nobel Laureate Tsung-Dao Lee’s idea of “From the Language of Heaven to the Rationale of Matter,” Tianyu focuses on exoplanet discovery and optical transient science. Originally a sub-project of JUST, it now follows an independent scientific roadmap.

Goals

The project aims to build a high-cadence, wide-field optical telescope capable of long-term survey monitoring. It will observe ~100 million targets, concentrating on the continuous viewing zone (CVZ) of Kepler/TESS to detect transits, variability, and transient phenomena across a broad range of timescales.

Technical Parameters

• Aperture: 1 meter
• Field of View: 10 deg²
• Target Objects: ~100M
• Cadence: 0.3 s – 1 week (configurable)
• Focus Region: Kepler/TESS CVZ

Science Topics

Tianyu supports multi-scale temporal monitoring (minutes to months) to meet diverse research goals. Scientific directions include:

• Exoplanets: Detecting long-period, low-SNR transits
• Variables and Outbursts: Periodic and stochastic light curve variations
• NEOs: Tracking near-Earth asteroid paths
• TNO Occultations: Monitoring distant solar system bodies
• Early Supernovae: Identifying initial outbursts and triggering follow-up
• FBOTs: Capturing fast blue optical transients
• Multi-Messenger Events: Searching for optical counterparts to GRBs and FRBs

Significance

Tianyu fills a crucial gap in China's time-domain survey capabilities, offering high-precision, long-baseline photometric data. It will also provide valuable operational and data processing experience for future large-scale observatories.

Open Collaboration

The project follows an open and collaborative model, encouraging global participation in data analysis and scientific discovery. A dedicated data platform is under development to support access and integration.