Low Mass Companions of White Dwarf Stars

现代天文学中最古老的问题之一是： 恒星与行星系统共存的比例 桥 低质量恒星和巨行星之间的联系，比如木星， 这类天体被称为“褐矮星”。“褐矮星闪耀在 红外线（IR）波长的能量释放的缓慢重力， 摩擦收缩 在接下来的三年里，校长 研究者（PI）及其合作研究者将继续长期研究 以及之前NSF支持的寻找褐矮星的调查。 因为褐矮星并不比白色矮星暗多少， 他们将获得几百个白色矮星的电子图像 用红外摄像机，估计褐矮星的数量， 他们 他们还将继续监测先前发现的 棕矮星/白矮星系统，以确定其轨道特征， 以及这些物体的质量。 是 预计这项研究和相关研究将有助于 对我们理解恒星的形成有着重要的意义 特别是这些天体是否 相同形成过程的产物。

One of the oldest questions in modern astronomy is: what is the percentage of stars accompanied by planetary systems? The bridge between low-mass stars and giant planets, such as Jupiter, is a class of objects called "brown dwarfs." Brown dwarfs shine at infrared (IR) wavelengths from energy released by slow gravi- tational contraction. During the next three years the Principal Investigator (PI) and his Co-Investigator will continue a long-term and previously NSF-supported survey to search for brown dwarfs. Because brown dwarfs are not too much fainter than white dwarfs, they will obtain electronic images of several hundred white dwarfs with an IR camera and estimate the number of brown dwarfs among them. They will also continue to monitor previously discovered brown-dwarf/white-dwarf systems to determine their orbital charac- teristics and ultimately the masses of these objects. It is expected that this and related studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of the formation of stars and planets, and in particular whether all these objects are products of the same formation process.