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... beyond our solar system ...
A lot of attention is given to the latest discoveries in the far reaches of the universe - the cosmic background radiation, galaxy evolution in the first few billion years, distant supernovae which show the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, ... - and rightly so.
So it's easy to overlook the fact that good research is being done much closer to home, and largely with much more modest equipment than the HST, the Kecks, or the VLTs.
RECONS (Research Consortium on Nearby Stars) aims "to understand the nature of the Sun's nearest stellar neighbors, both individually and as a population. Our goals are to discover ``missing'' members of the sample of stars within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), and to characterize all stars within that distance limit. New members are found via astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic techniques, or through companionship studies at small and large separations. Characterization includes photometry and spectroscopy at both optical and infrared wavelengths, as well as determinations of the luminosity function, mass function, and multiplicity fraction of the nearby stars."
They haven't found a star closer to the Sun than Proxima Cen ... yet. Will they?
Popular summary:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1154_1.asp
RECONS home page:
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/
A lot of attention is given to the latest discoveries in the far reaches of the universe - the cosmic background radiation, galaxy evolution in the first few billion years, distant supernovae which show the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, ... - and rightly so.
So it's easy to overlook the fact that good research is being done much closer to home, and largely with much more modest equipment than the HST, the Kecks, or the VLTs.
RECONS (Research Consortium on Nearby Stars) aims "to understand the nature of the Sun's nearest stellar neighbors, both individually and as a population. Our goals are to discover ``missing'' members of the sample of stars within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), and to characterize all stars within that distance limit. New members are found via astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic techniques, or through companionship studies at small and large separations. Characterization includes photometry and spectroscopy at both optical and infrared wavelengths, as well as determinations of the luminosity function, mass function, and multiplicity fraction of the nearby stars."
They haven't found a star closer to the Sun than Proxima Cen ... yet. Will they?
Popular summary:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1154_1.asp
RECONS home page:
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/
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