Collaborative Research: RUI: Speckle Surveys of Nearby Stars

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $150,249 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

A research collaboration between Georgia State University, Bridgewater State University and Southern Connecticut State University will observe a sample of nearly 5000 stars across the entire sky using a technique called speckle imaging. The observations will focus on two volume-limited, volume-complete samples of K dwarf stars within 40 parsecs of the Sun and M dwarf stars within 20 parsecs, our Sun’s nearest stellar neighbors. The choice of nearby stars will enable imaging of their stellar environments down to separations smaller than the distance of Mercury to the Sun. This will allow them to discover how unusual our Sun is in its stellar solitude and provide a list of stars around which other solar systems might be found because they lack close companion stars. The project is student-intensive, with graduate and undergraduate students carrying out the work at three universities, including an outreach effort entitled “Why Resolution Matters.” The project provides opportunities to gain expertise in (1) science — astronomy and physics, (2) mathematics — intensive data acquisition and reduction, with statistical treatments of results involving large databases, and (3) engineering — using some of the U.S.’s premier telescopes equipped with state-of-the-art instruments. This work will allow the researchers to detect stellar companions and provide benchmark measurements of their (1) luminosity function, (2) mass function, (3) multiplicity rates, (4) masses, (5) mass-lumin

Key facts

NSF award ID
2510384
Awardee
BRIDGEWATER STATE UNIVERSITY (MA)
SAM.gov UEI
LKA6VHCCK9B4
PI
Jennifer G Winters
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY, RES IN UNDERGRAD INST-RESEARCH
Estimated total
$150,249
Funds obligated
$150,249
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
09/01/2025 → 08/31/2028