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Paper: |
Operation: Dwarf Hunt - A Methane Imaging Survey of Corona Australis |
Volume: |
448, 16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun |
Page: |
699 |
Authors: |
Parker, S. R.; Tinney, C. G. |
Abstract: |
T-dwarfs are amongst the coolest compact objects directly observable outside our Solar System,
and a critical means of probing star formation processes at very-low masses.
Corona Australis is a young (3–15Myr), nearby (130pc) star forming region,
and an ideal location in which to search for very cold T-type brown dwarfs.
Methane imaging provides several advantages in searching for such objects — most
critically that T-dwarfs are the only stellar objects expected to show blue
colours in specially designed sets of methane filters. Surveys of this nature are important as they
provide a direct means to answer fundamental questions — “Is there a minimum
mass for star formation?” and “Is there a universal cluster mass function?”. |
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