RUI: Searching for the Nearest Young Stars

最近的观测对太阳附近的恒星形成历史有了新的认识。其中最重要的是发现了一些非常年轻的恒星和附近的恒星。这些观测表明，在地球附近可能存在以前未被发现的前主序星，要么是分布在一个分散的群体中，要么是松散的群体，不再与形成它们的分子气体有联系。如果它们能被发现，这类恒星将在限定太阳附近的恒星形成历史和原行星盘演化模型方面非常有用。这里的PI正在继续对附近的年轻恒星进行调查，这些恒星不是已知恒星形成区域的成员。这项研究已经发现了几十颗以前不为人知的年轻恒星，其中一些离地球很近。这项调查的目的是：(1)以一种不偏向或反对具有星周盘的恒星的方式寻找年轻恒星；(2)利用发现的恒星作为实验室，在行星形成的年龄研究行星盘的演化。更广泛的影响。该项目涉及大量本科生研究人员，涉及科学过程的各个方面，包括提案写作、望远镜观测、档案数据研究、数据简化和分析，以及在会议和文献中展示结果。在这个观测项目中获得的高质量光谱数据将提供给天文学界，用于对这些恒星特性的其他研究。最后，了解行星是如何形成的（并可能发现新的行星）引起了大众的极大兴趣。PI利用这种兴趣，并利用该研究项目的结果来激励他的各级本科生学习更多的基础科学，成为知情的公民。PI还定期举办关于这项研究的通俗讲座，将nsf支持的科学成果传播给更多的受众。

AST 0307830Jensen, Eric L.N.Recent observations have shed new light on the star formation history of the solar neighborhood. One of the most significant is the recognition of several associations of very young and nearby stars. These observations suggest there may be previously unrecognized pre-main sequence stars near Earth, either in a distributed population or in loose associations that are no longer associated with molecular gas from which they formed. If they can be found, such stars would be very useful in constraining both the star formation history in the solar neighborhood and models of the evolution of protoplanetary disks. The PI here is continuing a survey for nearby young stars that are not members of known star forming regions. This research has already yielded discovery of dozens of previously unknown young stars, some of which are quite near Earth. The aims of this survey are: (1) to search for young stars in a way that is not biased toward or against stars with circumstellar disks; and (2) to use the stars discovered as laboratories to study disk evolution at ages when planet formation around them should be occurring.Broader impacts. The PI involves a significant number of undergraduate student researchers in all aspects of the scientific process, including proposal writing, observations at the telescope, archival data research, data reduction and analysis, and presentation of results at meetings and in the literature. The high quality spectroscopic data obtained during this observational program will be made available to the astronomical community for other investigations of these stars' properties. Finally, understanding how planets form (and possibly discovering new planets) is of great popular interest. The PI draws on this interest and uses results from this research program to motivate his undergraduate students at all levels to learn more fundamental science and to become informed citizens. The PI also presents regular popular-level talks about this research to spread the results of NSF-supported science to a larger audience.