Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21724205h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #242.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
RECONS (Research Consortium on Nearby Stars, www.recons.org) is expanding its careful reconnaissance of the solar neighborhood from the original 10 parsec core sample to 25 parsecs. The resulting RECONS Database will expand the number of stellar systems for which we have detailed observations (astrometry, photometry, spectroscopy) and derived information (metallicity, multiplicity, exoplanets) from about 250 systems to 4000-6000 systems.
Here we outline the new-and-improved 25 parsec sample, significantly updated from the NStars effort of a decade ago. To date, only 2000 systems have trigonometric parallaxes placing them within 25 parsecs, with more than 10% contributed by the RECONS effort at CTIO. In fact, an accurate estimate of the expected population is elusive, as new systems are being found as close as 4 parsecs, making extrapolations to 25 parsecs highly uncertain. We look forward to upcoming contributions made to the census by RECONS, SkyMapper, Pan-STARRS, LSST, and Gaia, and discuss how each of these efforts will play a role. During the next decade, census work is important because of surging interest in the nearest stars --- our stellar neighbors will offer the best answers to such fundamental questions as "What types of stars really populate the Galaxy?", "How many planets orbit nearby stars?", and "Is there life on any of those planets?"
This work is currently supported by the NSF under AST 09-08402.
Boyd Mark R.
Dieterich Sergio B.
Finch Charlie T.
Henry Todd J.
Ianna Philip A.
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