We describe a new method to identify young, late-type stars within ~150 pc of the Earth that employs visual or near-infrared data and the GALEX GR4/5 database. For spectral types later than K5, we demonstrate that the ratio of GALEX near-ultraviolet (NUV) to visual and near-IR emission is larger for stars with ages between 10 and 100 Myr than for older, main sequence stars. A search in regions of the sky encompassing the TW Hya and Scorpius-Centaurus Associations has returned 54 high-quality candidates for followup. Spectroscopic observations of 24 of these M1-M5 objects reveal Li 6708 angstrom absorption in at least 17 systems. Because GALEX surveys have covered a significant fraction of the sky, this methodology should prove valuable for future young star studies.
@article{arxiv.1010.2493,
title = {A New Method to Identify Nearby, Young, Low-mass Stars},
author = {David R. Rodriguez and M. S. Bessell and B. Zuckerman and Joel H. Kastner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.2493},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
27 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. Some significant changes were made in proof, we recommend readers use the ApJ version