Accurate distances are critical for understanding the physical properties of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars. We need to know the intrinsic brightness of these objects to proceed, but we can’t know that until we have an idea of their distance. After all, a relatively faint star can seem much brighter if nearer to us, while a distant bright star can appear deceptively dim. Intrinsic brightness is a measure of how stars would appear if observed at a common distance. Enter an exoplanet search that began at the Carnegie Institution for Science in 2007, using the Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search Camera (CAPSCam) to look for gas giant planets and brown dwarfs orbiting nearby low-mass stars. A new report from the program tells us that it has measured the distance to 134 low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, 38 of which have had no previously measured trigonometric parallax. These are all stars considered too faint for inclusion in the European Space Agency’s Hipparcos survey, but as the report...
Calibrating Distances to Low Mass Stars
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