Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1K096

The GALEX Nearby Young-Star Survey

Rodriguez, David (Universidad de Chile)
Zuckerman, Ben (UCLA)
Kastner, Joel (RIT)
Bessell, Mike (ANU)
Faherty, Jacqueline (Universidad de Chile, AMNH)
Murphy, Simon (ANU, University of Heidelberg)
Vican, Laura (UCLA)

Abstract:
Over the last few decades, many ~10-100 Myr-old stars have been identified in moving groups located closer than 100 parsecs to Earth. For direct imaging searches of extrasolar planets these stars represent the best targets and they will be continuously observed during the coming decades as new imaging systems and larger telescopes are commissioned. Recent work has shown that near-IR surveys, like 2MASS, combined with ultraviolet data from GALEX can be used to identify additional members in these moving groups. In particular, this methodology is well suited to searching for low-mass stars, which are generally lacking in moving group member statistics. Initial searches for young stars relied on optical identification (such as with Tycho and Hipparcos) and X-ray detection with ROSAT. The recent release of the all-sky WISE catalog has opened up a new frontier in the search for nearby, young, low-mass stars. We have carried out an all-sky cross correlation between the GALEX, WISE, and 2MASS databases and identified many candidate young, low-mass stars. Early spectroscopic results confirm the youthful nature of our candidates. This suggests that our technique is capable of identifying the many low-mass stars that remain to be found among the nearby young moving groups. This work is supported by a NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program award to RIT and UCLA and a FONDECYT grant at Universidad de Chile.

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