NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009B-0425
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009B-0425 |
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PI: Sergio B. Dieterich, Georgia State University, dieterich@chara.gsu.edu
Address: Physics Department, 29 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
CoI: Todd J. Henry, Georgia State University
Title: Probing Stellar Physics at the Bottom of the Main Sequence: Populating the Optical Color Space for Spectral Types M6V to L6
Abstract:
We propose to use the SOAR Optical imager (SOI) at the SOAR 4 meter
telescope to obtain VRI photometry for a sample of 125 Very Low Mass
(VLM)stars and high mass brown dwarfs. All targets are within 25
parsecs of the Sun. As part of a comprehensive effort involving several
observatories we plan on obtaining trigonometric parallaxes and mapping
the orbits of any newly discovered binaries in the sample. Much work
has been done in the field of Very Low Mass stars during the last
decade, but the fundamental question of where the exact boundary between
stars and sub-stellar objects lies is still largely unanswered. This is
due to the lack of reliable observational tests that discriminate
between the most massive brown dwarfs and the least massive stars.
Characterizing objects near this boundary is the fundamental aspect of
the PI's doctoral thesis. We will use the photometry to place these
Very Low Mass objects in color-magnitude diagrams and to refine existing
bolometric corrections.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009B-0425 |
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