SEARCHING FOR LOW-MASS COMPANIONS OF NEARBY STARS

We are using the unique imaging capabilities of the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope to search for low-mass companions about nearby stars. The FOS is not usually considered an imaging camera, but does have imaging capabilities to support target acquisitions. This imaging technique has the ability to distinquish objects over a 10 magnitude range in brightness and at sub-arcsecond separation.

During Cycles 5 & 6 we will obtain FOS images of 6 target stars, 2 of which are known binaries. Proxima Centauri is on our target list and will be visited twice.

• Press Release Photos & Captions
  • First Images - Gl 293 & GJ1245AC
  • The Wolf Page! - 359 & 424
  • Proxima Cen WFPC2 & FOS images
  • Proxima Planet - Astronomy ASTRONEWS February 1998
  • The New Scientist - did Hubble catch a glimpse of a giant?
  • PowerNet, Reno, Nevada - Proxima Planet
  • The Scotsman - planet outside solar system January 1998
• Other FOS images from the Archive
• Individual Stars
• The Search Team
• Conference Reports
• Publications
• Sky map showing locations of Target Stars (better viewed with XV/Mosaic)
• animated blink image showing proper motion of Proxima Cent as generated from the DSS images of the star

• The Unofficial HST Brown Dwarf page
• Extrasolar Planets Catalog Page
• The Penn State Pulsar Group
• San Francisco State University Planet Search Project
• The AFOE Homepage - findings of rho Coronae Borealis can be found here
• The Runaway Planet: TMR-1C
  • A related write-up/story to TMR-1C
• Gliese 876 - a new planet? (June '98)
  • Gliese 876 - data charts

• NICMOS characteristics for very-low-mass companions search - an STScI preprint

updated 12/10/99 - Mk

kochte@stsci.edu