M2K: A Search for Planets Orbiting Early M and Late K Dwarf Stars

We have launched a spectroscopic survey of late-type stars. These stars have been drawn from the SUPERBLINK catalog (Lepine 2005). We have obtained Keck observations for 51 (mostly late K dwarf) stars in the survey. From these observations, we have measured radial velocities and used the template spectra (without iodine) to carry out a spectroscopic analysis. For stars with high RMS scatter, suggestive of a planetary companion, we have initiated photometric monitoring to search for transit signals. Doppler surveys for exoplanets are monitoring almost every bright, chromospherically inactive solar type star (late F, G-type, and early K) within 30 parsecs, however, fewer than 10% of late K and early M dwarf stars in the same volume are being monitored. This project will nearly double the total number of late K and early M dwarfs currently being surveyed, significantly improving our ability to understand the relationship between stellar mass and planetary mass. We would like to thank NASA for funding this project.