Bobdrake began this thread about a different object but as there is now a new kid on the block of more a substantial girth that I think it bears mention and since this thread has such a nice title I think it will serve for some of the closer discoveries.
http://story.news.ya...borly_red_dwarfStar Search Finds Neighborly Red Dwarf37 minutes ago Add Science - Space.com
Astronomers have stumbled onto a previously unknown star in Earth's stellar neighborhood, a red dwarf that appears to be the third-closest star system to our own.
"Our new stellar neighbor is a pleasant surprise, since we weren't looking for it," Bonnard Teegarden, an astrophysicist with NASA (news - web sites)'s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a written statement.
Teegarden, the lead author of the study, and his colleagues happened upon the star while searching for nearby white dwarfs, the remains of collapsed stars that quickly traverse the night sky. Astronomers track white dwarfs like they track planets and near earth objects, by tracking their change in position over time. The study of these dead stars can then help estimate the mass and ages of galaxies.
"These and other stars make up the tapestry through which near earth asteroids travel, which is our main concern," said Steven Pravdo, who collaborated on the star search, during a telephone interview. Pravdo is the project director for NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program, which supplied a database full of sky observations - originally meant to find objects that might impact Earth - for Teegarden to sift through.
It was while going through the database that researchers discovered the dim red dwarf, which shines about 300,000 times fainter than the Sun. It's faintness has veiled it from astronomers until now, researchers said.
NASA astronomers estimate the newly discovered star to sit about 7.8 light years from Earth towards the constellation Aries. The closest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri, which is actually a set of triplets burning brightly about four light years away. Barnard's Star, the next-nearest neighbor is a slightly further hop at about six light years form Earth. One light year is about six trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers).
U.S. Naval Observatory is currently taking more observations of the star to pin down its exact distance from Earth. Teegarden's research on the red dwarf will appear in the publication Astrophysical Journal, although a final publication date has yet to be set.
Edited by Lazarus Long, 21 May 2003 - 12:29 AM.
