Research Consortium On Nearby Stars

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

• List of astronomical societies
• List of nearest stars

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. Bibcode:1994AJ....108.1437H. doi:10.1086/117167.
2. Henry, Todd J.; Ianna, Philip A.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Jahreiss, Hartmut (July 1997). "The solar neighborhood. IV: Discovery of the twentieth nearest star". The Astronomical Journal. 114: 388–395. Bibcode:1997AJ....114..388H. doi:10.1086/118482.
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. Bibcode:2006AJ....132.1234C. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.622.2310. doi:10.1086/505706. S2CID 18952940.
4. Henry, Todd J.; et al. (December 2006). "The solar neighborhood. XVII: Parallax results from the CTIOPI 0.9 m program: 20 New members of the RECONS 10 parsec sample" (PDF). The Astronomical Journal. 132 (6): 2360–2371. arXiv:astro-ph/0608230. Bibcode:2006AJ....132.2360H. doi:10.1086/508233. S2CID 15002841.
5. Henry, T.J.; Beaulieu, T.D.; Brown, M.A.; Jao, W.C.; Monteiro, H.; Subasavage, J.P.; RECONS (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. Bibcode:2004AAS...20516507H.
6. "List of the 100 nearest star systems". Department of Physics and Astronomy. RECONS. Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University.
7. "RECONS parallaxes". Department of Physics and Astronomy. Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University.
8. "The solar neighborhood series publications". Department of Physics and Astronomy. RECONS. Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University.
9. The RECONS Movie (video). produced by Adric Riedel (Caltech, RECONS). Research Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)

External links

• "RECONS homepage / official website". Department of Physics and Astronomy. Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University.