Volume-Limited Survey for Wide Substellar Companions to Nearby Stars
Abstract
We report preliminary results from a search for substellar companions to all stars within the NStars Database: a catalogue of all stars known to be within 25 pc by virture of having a well-established trigonometric parallax. Our survey uses the 2MASS, GSC, and USNOB point source catalogs to color- and magnitude-select a list of all candidate companions within a projected separation of 20,000 AU. Visual inspection is used to eliminate non-stellar sources whenever possible. Common proper motion, when available from multi-epoch survey data, is also used to test for multiple system membership. The end product of this survey will be upper limits for the presence of wide companions, together with a minimized candidate list for follow-up confirmation of possible substellar companions. This work is supported by NSF grant AST-0453611 and promises to yield a milestone in the comprehensive survey of wide binary companions below the hydrogen-burning mass limit.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AAS...207.6807L