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Published September 2010 | Published
Journal Article Open

Discoveries from a Near-infrared Proper Motion Survey Using Multi-epoch Two Micron All-Sky Survey Data

Abstract

We have conducted a 4030 deg^2 near-infrared proper motion survey using multi-epoch data from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). We find 2778 proper motion candidates, 647 of which are not listed in SIMBAD. After comparison to Digitized Sky Survey images, we find that 107 of our proper motion candidates lack counterparts at B, R, and I bands and are thus 2MASS-only detections. We present results of spectroscopic follow-up of 188 targets that include the infrared-only sources along with selected optical-counterpart sources with faint reduced proper motions or interesting colors. We also establish a set of near-infrared spectroscopic standards with which to anchor near-infrared classifications for our objects. Among the discoveries are six young field brown dwarfs, five "red L" dwarfs, three L-type subdwarfs, twelve M-type subdwarfs, eight "blue L" dwarfs, and several T dwarfs. We further refine the definitions of these exotic classes to aid future identification of similar objects. We examine their kinematics and find that both the "blue L" and "red L" dwarfs appear to be drawn from a relatively old population. This survey provides a glimpse of the kinds of research that will be possible through time-domain infrared projects such as the UKIDSS Large Area Survey, various VISTA surveys, and WISE, and also through z- or y-band enabled, multi-epoch surveys such as Pan-STARRS and LSST.

Additional Information

© 2010 American Astronomical Society. Received 2009 December 26; accepted 2010 July 12; published 2010 August 27. Some of the spectroscopic data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Other spectroscopic data were collected at the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. We thank John Stauffer and Maria Morales-Calderon for giving us some telescope time in exchange for instrument expertise on 2005 December 9 (UT) at Keck-II. We thank Lee Rottler for assistance in installing and troubleshooting various science software packages in support of this paper. We thank Francesca Colonnese for help with intermediate versions of the tables for the 1X-6X survey and Rob Simcoe for taking some of the Magellan-Clay observations. We are indebted to the support staff at each of the observatories we used; their expertise was instrumental in making this survey a success. We acknowledge use of The Digitized Sky Surveys, which were produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Our research has benefitted from the M, L, and T dwarf compendium housed at DwarfArchives.org, whose server was funded by a NASA Small Research Grant, administered by the American Astronomical Society. We are also indebted to the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. We further recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

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