Dr. Todd Henry, at the Georgia State University, will undertake research under the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars ("RECONS") program. RECONS has several goals, among them providing a census of stars within 10 parsecs of the Sun, the identification of white dwarfs within 25 parsecs of the Sun, the identification of subdwarfs in the Solar neighborhood, a search for companions to white and red dwarfs, and identification of other nearby stars though proper motion data.
The primary broader impact of the proposed research is in the area of student training in the field of astrometry. Additionally, a variety of efforts within astronomy will benefit from a census of nearby stars, among them searches for extrasolar planets and searches for dark matter.
