NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2010A-0185
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2010A-0185 |
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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: Continuing to Map the Optical Color Space for Spectral Types M6V to L5
Abstract:
We propose to continue our SOAR Optical Imager (SOI) campaign to
obtain VRI photometry for a sample of 116 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 to obtain trigonometric parallaxes and to map 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 optical photometry from SOAR to place these Very Low Mass
objects in color-magnitude diagrams and to refine existing bolometric
corrections. Several objects in our sample have uncertain spectral
types. As a backup program, we plan to use the Goodman Spectrograph and
perform spectral typing in case the weather is not photometric. These
observations are a crucial part of our goal of calibrating the mass-
luminosity relation in the stellar/sub-stellar transition region.
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 > 2010A-0185 |
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