Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
6-2026
Publication Title
The 23rd Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun
Abstract
The M dwarfs are frequently orbited by low-mass stars and terrestrial planets, yet rarely by the brown dwarfs and Jovian planets between those mass regimes. The collective orbital architectures of those unusual substellar companions thus present a valuable opportunity to learn about those objects' formation, dynamical evolution, and original circumstellar environments. Accessing those parameter spaces, however, requires complementary observing techniques to truly map orbits and thoroughly assess the masses and mass ratios that occur. Here we present our pilot study of five M dwarfs with strong evidence of potentially substellar companions, combining 20+ years of astrometric monitoring from RECONS with high-precision radial velocity snapshots from Maroon-X on Gemini-N. Each system is also constrained by our 300-target comprehensive SOAR speckle interferometry survey of stellar M dwarf companions. Together, these powerful data sets will let us detect and characterize substellar orbits beyond the typical limits of each technique alone. We will present preliminary results from this study as well as our plan for the "dream survey" --- to detect all substellar companions around 500 stars in the local neighborhood orbiting on periods spanning days to decades.
Recommended Citation
Vrijmoet, Eliot; Ward-Duong, K.; Niu, Susan; Matthews, Alette; Henry, Todd; and Williams, Lucy, "What's the Big Picture? Capturing All the Companions to the Lowest-Mass Stars" (2026). Astronomy: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/ast_facpubs/150
Comments
The 23rd Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun (Tokyo, June 15-19, 2026)
Poster originally published in Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/20713126