SLU Physics - Nearby Stars Project

Nearby Stars Project
Emily Knox '03

Abstract:

The preparatory science program of the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) of NASA’s Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) includes a complete, systematic study of nearby stars (N stars). Our work has been part of the Appalachian State project headed up by Richard Gray (App. State) in cooperation with Chris Corbally (Vatican Observatory) and Robert Garrison (U. Toronto) investigating stars within 40 pc (~150 ly) with surface temperatures warmer than 3500K. Since they are distributed all over the sky, observations of these stars has required the use of telescopes in North Carolina, Arizona, Chile, and Canada. In this project, we participated in observations at the University of Toronto’s David Dunlapp Observatory (DDO) in Toronto, Canada, and the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) in La Serena, Chile. We have also worked at removing the effects (primarily extinction) of Earth’s atmosphere from the spectra obtained at DDO so as to flux calibrate them at each wavelength to insure accurate spectral classification and analysis. This requires characterizing the effect of the atmosphere at each wavelength for all observing angles between the horizon and zenith. Observations of a spectrophotometric standard star at a variety of angles were systematically compared to the known flux of that star at each wavelength to obtain the atmospheric extinction curve for the Toronto sky. The model was then applied to each observed program star to calibrate its spectrum.

For more information, contact Dr. Aileen O'Donghue:

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