Organization:Research Consortium On Nearby Stars

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The REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) is an international group of astronomers founded in 1994 to investigate the stars nearest to the Solar System - with a focus on those within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), but as of 2012 the horizon was stretched to 25 parsecs. In part the project hopes a more accurate survey of local star systems will give a better picture of the star systems in the Galaxy as a whole.

Notable discoveries

The Consortium claims authorship of the series The Solar Neighborhood in The Astronomical Journal, that began in 1994.[1] This series now numbers nearly 40 papers and submissions. The following discoveries are from this series:

  • GJ 1061 was discovered to be the 20th nearest known star system, at a distance of 11.9 light years.[2]
  • The first accurate measurement of distance for DENIS 0255-4700 . At a distance of 16.2 light years, it is the nearest known class L brown dwarf object to the Solar System.[3]
  • The discovery of 20 previously unknown star systems within 10 parsecs of the Solar System. These are in addition to 8 new star systems announced between 2000 and 2005.[4]

RECONS is listed explicitly as an author on papers submitted to the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society since 2004.[5]

The RECONS web page includes the frequently referenced "List of the 100 nearest star systems".[6] They update this list as discoveries are made. A list of all RECONS parallaxes[7] is available, as are all papers in the solar neighborhood series[8] and [9] which illustrates data from the RECONS 25 Parsec Database.

Members

Key astronomers involved in the project include

  • Todd J. Henry (GSU) (consortium founder and director)
  • Wei-Chun Jao (GSU)
  • John Subasavage (USNO-Flagstaff)
  • Charlie Finch (USNO-DC)
  • Adric Riedel (Caltech)
  • Sergio Dieterich (Carnegie)
  • Jennifer Winters (H-S CfA)
  • Phil Ianna (UVA).

See also

References

  1. Henry, Todd J.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Simons, Douglas A. (October 1994). "The solar neighborhood. I: Standard spectral types (K5-M8) for northern dwarfs within eight parsecs". The Astronomical Journal 108 (4): 1437–1444. doi:10.1086/117167. Bibcode1994AJ....108.1437H. 
  2. "The solar neighborhood. IV: Discovery of the twentieth nearest star". The Astronomical Journal 114: 388–395. July 1997. doi:10.1086/118482. Bibcode1997AJ....114..388H. 
  3. Costa, Edgardo; Méndez, René A.; Jao, W.-C.; Henry, Todd J.; Subasavage, John P.; Ianna, Philip A. (September 2006). "The solar neighborhood. XVI: Parallaxes from CTIOPI: Final results from the 1.5 m telescope program". The Astronomical Journal 132 (3): 1234–1247. doi:10.1086/505706. Bibcode2006AJ....132.1234C. 
  4. "The solar neighborhood. XVII: Parallax results from the CTIOPI 0.9 m program: 20 New members of the RECONS 10 parsec sample". The Astronomical Journal 132 (6): 2360–2371. December 2006. doi:10.1086/508233. Bibcode2006AJ....132.2360H. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/bitstream/2250/126230/1/Henry_Todd.pdf. 
  5. Henry, T.J.; Beaulieu, T.D.; Brown, M.A.; Jao, W.C.; Monteiro, H.; Subasavage, J.P. (December 2004). "New nearby stars from NOAO and SMARTS observations". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. American Astronomical Society meeting 205, #165.07 36: 1618. Bibcode2004AAS...20516507H. 
  6. "List of the 100 nearest star systems". Georgia State University. http://www.astro.gsu.edu/RECONS/TOP100.posted.htm. 
  7. "RECONS parallaxes". Georgia State University. http://www.astro.gsu.edu/RECONS/publishedpi.2016.0510. 
  8. "The solar neighborhood series publications". Georgia State University. http://www.astro.gsu.edu/RECONS/Publications.htm. 
  9. The RECONS Movie (video). produced by Adric Riedel (Caltech, RECONS). Research Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) – via YouTube.CS1 maint: others (link)

External links