The Solar Neighborhood XXXV: Distances to 1404 M Dwarf Systems Within 25 pc in the Southern Sky

• Published in: arXiv.org 2014-07
• Main Authors: Winters, Jennifer G, Henry, Todd J, Lurie, John C, Hambly, Nigel C, Wei-Chun Jao, Bartlett, Jennifer L, Boyd, Mark R, Dieterich, Sergio B, Finch, Charlie T, Hosey, Altonio D, Ianna, Philip A, Riedel, Adric R, Slatten, Kenneth J, Subasavage, John P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrometry; Galaxies; Photographic plates; Photometry; Red dwarf stars; Solar neighborhood; Southern sky
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1407.7837

We present trigonometric, photometric, and photographic distances to 1748 southern (\(\delta \leq\)0\(^\circ\)) M dwarf systems with \(\mu \ge\) 0\farcs18 yr\(^{-1}\), of which 1404 are believed to lie within 25 parsecs of the Sun. The stars have 6.67 \(\leq\) \(V_J\) \(\leq\) 21.38 and 3.50 \(\leq\) (\(V_J-K_s\)) \(\leq\) 9.27, covering the entire M dwarf spectral sequence from M0.0V through M9.5V. This sample therefore provides a comprehensive snapshot of our current knowledge of the southern sky for the nearest M dwarfs that dominate the stellar population of the Galaxy. Roughly one-third of the 1748 systems, each of which has an M dwarf primary, have published high quality parallaxes, including 179 from the RECONS astrometry program. For the remaining systems, we offer photometric distance estimates that have well-calibrated errors. The bulk of these (\(\sim\)700) are based on new \(V_JR_{KC}I_{KC}\) photometry acquired at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m telescope, while the remaining 500 primaries have photographic plate distance estimates calculated using SuperCOSMOS \(B_JR_{59F}I_{IVN}\) photometry. Confirmed and candidate subdwarfs in the sample have been identified, and a census of companions is included.