Taking a Census of the Local White Dwarf Population
John Subasavage
United States Naval Observatory - Flagstaff Station
White dwarfs (WDs), or stellar embers, hold keys to
unlocking a number of cosmic secrets. The vast majority of stars will
become WDs and thus, they represent tracers of what was in our Galaxy.
The local sample of WDs are the brightest and most easily studied of
this intrinsically faint class of objects. I will present a census of
WDs within 25 parsecs of the Sun, including the latest results from
two astrometric WD surveys - CTIOPI and the USNO parallax program. I
will outline a recent effort, known as the SOAR & SMARTS White Dwarf
Survey (SSSWDS), to better complete this sample via new WD discovery
using astrometry, photometry and, spectroscopy. Lastly, I will
highlight additional data for a few exceptional WDs that have surfaced
as a result of these ongoing surveys.
Date: | Thursday, 21 March 2013 |
Time: | 11:30 |
Where: | Université de Montréal |
| Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, local D-460 |
Contact: | Pierre Bergeron |
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