Stars and Brown Dwarfs: RECONS Studies of the Solar Neighborhood

RECONS(近邻恒星研究联盟)项目正在对距离太阳最近的恒星进行侦察，重点关注我们的邻居，直到大约80光年的地平线。在目前的努力中，该团队将重点放在被称为红矮星的最小恒星以及质量略小的近亲棕矮星上。这两种物体之间的主要区别在于它们是否能通过核反应发光。红矮星是真正的恒星，它们将氢聚变为核心中的氦，就像我们的太阳一样，并发光数十亿年。虽然红矮星是宇宙中最小的真恒星，但红矮星是迄今为止最常见的恒星类型，至少占所有恒星的四分之三，但我们不太确定有多少。另一方面，棕矮星是像木星一样的冷却体，不会聚变氢，其行为更像超行星。RECONS团队正在对红矮星和棕矮星进行普查，并揭示它们被恒星、棕矮星或行星伴侣环绕的频率。然后我们将最终知道太阳的邻居中有多少是恒星，以及一些最近的行星在哪里被发现。通过这项计划，将向佐治亚州立大学的学生提供天体测量学方面的专门培训--精确测量天空中的位置和运动。作为一个为少数群体服务的大型机构，佐治亚州立大学处于有利地位，可以为来自代表性不足群体的学生提供研究机会。该计划还将让研究生和本科生参与到研究的各个方面，他们将通过他们的网站(www.recon.org)和公共宣传活动与公众分享他们的结果。RECONS是一个长期的、由NSF支持的计划，目的是描述离太阳最近的天文天体的特征。其中大多数是M矮星和棕矮星。在该计划促成的众多研究中，有一项详细描述了聚变驱动的恒星和非恒星矮星之间的质量和光度功能是如何转变的。RECONS星表可在其网站上公开获得，该星表还为晚型恒星和棕矮星的相对数量提供了最好的估计。在这项提议中，他们将扩展完全采样的空间体积，延长20年的天文测量时间表，并绘制低质量双星(包括那些有行星伴星的双星)的轨道图。

The RECONS (REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars) project is making a reconnaissance of the nearest stars to the Sun, focusing on our neighbors out to a horizon of about 80 light years. In the current effort, the team is focusing on the smallest stars, known as red dwarfs, and their slightly less massive cousins, the brown dwarfs. The main difference between the two types of objects is whether or not they can shine via nuclear reactions. Red dwarfs are true stars that fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores, like our Sun, and shine for many billions of years. Although they are the smallest true stars in the Universe, the red dwarfs are by far the most common type of star, accounting for at least three-quarters of all stars, but we're not quite sure how many there are. On the other hand, brown dwarfs are cooling bodies like Jupiter that do not fuse hydrogen, and behave more like superplanets. The RECONS team is taking a census of red and brown dwarfs and revealing how often they are orbited by stellar, brown dwarf, or planetary companions. We will then ultimately know just what fraction of the Sun's neighbors are stars and where some of the nearest planets are found. Through this program, specialized training in astrometry - the precise measurement of positions and motions on the sky - will be provided to Georgia State University students. As a large minority-serving institution, Georgia State well placed to provide research opportunities to students from underrepresented groups. The program will also involve graduate and undergraduate students in all aspects of the research, and they will share their results with the general public through their website (www.recons.org) and through public outreach activities.RECONS is a long-term, NSF-supported program to characterize the astronomical objects closest to the Sun. Most of these are M dwarfs and Brown Dwarfs. Among the many studies enabled by this program is a detailed description of how the mass and luminosity functions transition between fusion-powered stars and the non-stellar dwarfs. The RECONS catalog, publicly-available at their website, also provides the best estimate available for the relative populations of late-type stars and brown dwarfs. In this proposal, they will extend the volume of space completely sampled, extend their 20-year timeline of astrometric measurements, and map orbits of low-mass binaries (including those with planetary companions).