Exoplanets & Exomoons

A Catalog of Nearby Cool Host-Stars for Habitable Exoplanets and Life

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.SR
June 30, 2014
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A Catalog of Nearby Cool Host-Stars for Habitable Exoplanets and Life

We present an all-sky catalog of 2970 nearby (d≲50 pc), bright ( J<9 ) M- or late K-type dwarf stars, 86% of which have been confirmed by spectroscopy.
This catalog will be useful for searches for Earth-size and possibly Earth-like planets by future space-based transit missions and ground-based infrared Doppler radial velocity surveys. Stars were selected from the SUPERBLINK proper motion catalog according to absolute magnitudes, spectra, or a combination of reduced proper motions and photometric colors. From our spectra we determined gravity-sensitive indices, and identified and removed 0.2% of these as interloping hotter or evolved stars. Thirteen percent of the stars exhibit H-alpha emission, an indication of stellar magnetic activity and possible youth.

The mean metallicity is [Fe/H] = -0.07 with a standard deviation of 0.22 dex, similar to nearby solar-type stars. We determined stellar effective temperatures by least-squares fitting of spectra to model predictions calibrated by fits to stars with established bolometric temperatures, and estimated radii, luminosities, and masses using empirical relations. Six percent of stars with images from integral field spectra are resolved doubles. We inferred the planet population around M dwarfs using Kepler data and applied this to our catalog to predict detections by future exoplanet surveys.

Trumpeting M Dwarfs with CONCH-SHELL: a Catalog of Nearby Cool Host-Stars for Habitable ExopLanets and Life

E. Gaidos, A. W. Mann, S. Lepine, A. Buccino, D. James, M. Ansdell, R. Petrucci, P. Mauas, E. J. Hilton (Submitted on 28 Jun 2014)

Comments: Accepted to MNRAS 22 figures, 3 tables, 2 electronic tables

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Cite as: arXiv:1406.7353 [astro-ph.SR]  (or arXiv:1406.7353v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)

Submission history From: Eric Gaidos [v1] Sat, 28 Jun 2014 04:29:51 GMT (1942kb,A)

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻