The NStars Project and Small Telescopes
Abstract
The NStars Project is investigating all stellar, substellar, and planetary objects within 25 parsecs of the Sun. This effort involves collecting data from the astronomical community into a comprehensive and quality-controlled master compendium (the NStars Database) available over the worldwide web (http://nstars.arc.nasa.gov, at the time of this writing). Unlike earlier general and “passive” stellar databases that amass published data, NStars is also actively carrying out research to characterize known members of the sample as well as to discover new members, with special emphasis on properties of astrobiological interest. Much of the fundamental astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic research needed to develop a complete picture of the Sun's neighbors is being carried out on telescopes with apertures less than 2 meters. Small telescopes continue to provide the backbone of stellar astronomy, just as they have for decades. Ultimately, NStars will provide target lists of stars to be closely examined by NASA Origins missions and programs such as SIRTF (Space InfraRed Telescope Facility), SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), SIM (Space Interferometry Mission), and TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder). Thus, much of the fundamental work required before any of these missions can be successful takes place at small telescopes on the ground. We will discuss the crucial role that these small telescopes play in the NStars Project, and how they provide the foundations for these billion-dollar missions.
Key words
nearby stars parallaxes astrometry photometry spectroscopyPreview
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