Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Feb 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001noao.prop..270h&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #2001A-0270
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
The nearest stars have gained renewed scrutiny because of their role in topics as diverse as fundamental astrophysics (e.g. stellar atmospheres, the mass content of the Galaxy) and as environments for planetary systems and life (e.g. the new NASA Astrobiology initiative). The smallest stars, the M dwarfs, dominate the population of the solar neighborhood, accounting for at least 70% of all stars and comprising nearly half of the Galaxy's total stellar mass. The slightly lesser cousins of the M dwarfs, the brown dwarfs, may lurk in comparable numbers. Yet, many of the nearest red and brown dwarfs (and white dwarfs) remain unrecognized due to their low luminosity. We propose to obtain red spectra (5800-9200 Å) for suspected nearby red, brown, and white dwarfs to characterize the Sun's neighbors and to support our NOAO Survey Program to get parallaxes for southern nearby stars, CTIOPI. During previous CTIO spectroscopic observing runs we have identified more than a dozen new stars within 10 parsecs of the Sun that are now included in the CTIOPI observing list, and obtained high quality spectra of known nearby stars, thereby providing fundamental data to the NASA/NSF NStars Project. Our most exciting result to date was the discovery of the 20th nearest star, GJ 1061 (Henry et al 1997 AJ 114 388). At a distance of only 3.7 parsecs, it is only three times further away than Proxima Centauri. We currently have two candidates that are potentially even closer. This work will very likely become the senior undergraduate thesis for CoI Lucianne Walkowicz at Johns Hopkins University.
Golimowski Dave
Henry Todd J.
Walkowicz Lucianne
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