RECONS Mission Statement

The purpose of RECONS (REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars) is to understand the nature of the Sun's nearest stellar neighbors, both individually and as a population. Our primary goals are to discover "missing" members of the stellar sample within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), and to characterize all stars and their environments within that distance limit. New members are found via astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic techniques, and through searches for stellar, brown dwarf, and planetary companions at small and large separations. Characterization includes photometry and spectroscopy at both optical and infrared wavelengths, as well as determinations of the luminosity function, mass function, and multiplicity fraction of the nearby stars. RECONS is currently extending survey work to 25 parsecs in an effort to understand the Sun's and Earth's places among a larger population of our neighbors.


We request that if you use data from this website, please acknowledge RECONS and reference www.recons.org

Current support for RECONS comes from the National Science Foundation and NASA. Our primary observing programs are carried out via the SMARTS 0.9m and 1.5m telescopes at CTIO in the Chilean Andes.


  POSTERS AT COOL STARS 22 IN SAN DIEGO

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  RECONS Results   RECONS News   RECONS Resources --- Ten Parsec Sample   RECONS Resources --- Beyond Ten Parsecs   RECONS Team


about the logo

The RECONS logo image is an infrared picture of the Alpha Centauri system taken while observing at the Cerro Tololo Inter-american Observatory near La Serena, Chile. The mirror cover at the 1.5m telescope, which has segments much like flower petals, was partially closed, causing the diffraction effects seen for each of the two stars, Alpha Centauri A and B. These two stars and Proxima Centauri (beyond the field of view) comprise the nearest stellar system to the Sun, which is, in fact, a triple star system.



 

 

 
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EXTRA BITS:   RECONS at the AAS Meeting in Kissimmee, FL in January 2016

Todd Henry: 10 Parsec Census

Tiffany Clements (nee Pewett): Long-Term Variability of M Dwarfs

R. Andrew Sevrinsky: Mass Determinations for Stars and Brown Dwarfs

Michele Silverstein: The Sizes and Ages of the Smallest Stars