Collaborative Research: Exploring the Nearest Stars on Solar System Scales

该项目将探索2000多个距离太阳最近的恒星系统的环境。目标是(A)发现我们的太阳在其恒星孤独中是多么不同寻常，(B)了解有多少不同类型的恒星是倍数，(C)提供将推动我们了解恒星如何形成的基本统计数据，以及(D)提供可能找到与太阳系类似的恒星的列表。该项目使我们能够在银河系的背景下放置我们自己的太阳，回答了一个广泛的问题，“我们的太阳与其他恒星相比如何？”它还将提供有关宜居世界可能性的重要信息。该项目为这两所学校的研究生和本科生提供培训机会，每一所学校都包括相当一部分少数族裔学生。这两个机构将利用当地的设施为学生和普通公众开发补充观测项目，并将这些项目与他们的教育项目相结合。两项高分辨率成像调查将使用差分散斑测量仪器(DSSI)完成，这是一种独特的散斑成像系统，可以同时提供两种颜色的衍射限制成像。观测将主要在洛厄尔天文台4.3米的探索频道望远镜和双子座北8.1米望远镜上进行。第一次探测的目标是25秒内V星等亮度大于16的1500多颗恒星。用DSSI观测附近的恒星将能够绘制出它们的恒星环境图，其距离小于水星到太阳的距离，甚至在样本的地平线上。这些结果将为恒星形成过程提供至关重要的见解，恒星多重性的统计数据将成为其他类型多重性研究的基准，重点是对行星形成至关重要的太阳系尺度。第二次调查的目标是在50秒内从北半球和南半球都能观测到的赤道样本中的1000多颗K-矮星。将其他技术与DSSI图像结合在一起，将对这些恒星的伴星进行调查，直到木星质量，以提供这种特定光谱类型跨越1000个质量范围的伴星的独特数据集，提供一个可以在未来几十年内参考的遗留数据集。

This project will explore the environments of more than 2000 of the nearest star systems to the Sun. The objectives are to (a) discover how unusual our Sun is in its stellar solitude, (b) understand how many stars of different types are multiples, (c) provide fundamental statistics that will drive our knowledge of how stars form, and (d) provide a list of stars where analogues of our Solar System might be found. The project allows us to place our own Sun in context in our Galaxy, answering the broad question, "How does our Sun compare to other stars?" It will also provide important information about the likelihood of habitable worlds. The project provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate student training at both institutions, each of which includes significant fractions of minority students. Both institutions will develop supplemental observing programs for students and general public using local facilities, and they will integrate these with their educational programs.Two high-resolution imaging surveys will be completed using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), a unique speckle imaging system that provides diffraction-limited imaging in two colors simultaneously. Observations will primarily be taken at Lowell Observatory's 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope and at the Gemini North 8.1-meter Telescope. The first survey will target more than 1500 stars within 25 parsecs with V magnitudes brighter than 16. Observing nearby stars with DSSI will enable mapping of their stellar environments down to separations smaller than the distance of Mercury to the Sun, even at the horizon of the sample. The results will provide crucial insight into the star formation process, and the statistics of stellar multiplicity will be the benchmark for other types of multiplicity studies, with an emphasis on the Solar System scales crucial for planet formation. The second survey will target more than a thousand K-dwarfs within 50 parsecs in an equatorial sample that can be observed from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Incorporating other techniques together with DSSI images, these stars will be surveyed for companions down to Jovian masses to provide a unique data set of companions spanning a mass range of 1000 for this specific spectral type, providing a legacy data set that can be referenced for decades to come.