Related papers: Large Scale Searches for Brown Dwarfs and Free-Flo…

We have carried out a brown dwarf search over an area of 14' x 23' near the central portion of the Pleiades open cluster in five optical and near infrared bands (i', Z, J, H, Ks) with 10 sigma detection limits of i' = 22.0, J = 20.0 and Ks…

Brown dwarfs are failed stars with very low mass (13 to 75 $M_J$), and an effective temperature lower than 2500 K. Thus, they play a key role in understanding the gap in the mass function between stars and planets. However, due to their…

We describe the results of a very deep imaging survey of the Trapezium Cluster in the IJH bands, using the UKIRT high resolution camera UFTI. Approximately 32% of the 515 point sources detected are brown dwarf candidates, including several…

Gaia will identify several 1e5 white dwarfs, most of which will be in the solar neighborhood at distances of a few hundred parsecs. Ground-based optical follow-up spectroscopy of this sample of stellar remnants is essential to unlock the…

Brown dwarfs, which occupy a fuzzy gap in mass between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their origin is a topic of significant current interest and debate. Some astronomers…

Young brown dwarfs and directly-imaged exoplanets have enticingly similar photometric and spectroscopic characteristics, indicating that their cool, low gravity atmospheres should be studied in concert. Similarities between the peculiar…

The Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) is an ongoing astrometric search for giant planets and brown dwarfs around a sample of ~30 M-dwarfs. We have discovered several low-mass companions by measuring the motion of our target stars relative to…

We present initial results of our effort to create a statistically robust, volume-limited sample of ultracool dwarfs from the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release. We are engaged in a multifaceted search for nearby late-type dwarfs and…

The very recent discovery of planets orbiting very low mass stars sheds light on these exotic objects. Planetary systems around low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are very different from our solar system: the planets are expected to be much…

The number of brown dwarfs (BDs) now identified tops 700. Yet our understanding of these cool objects is still lacking, and models are struggling to accurately reproduce observations. What is needed is a method of calibrating the models,…

Planet frequency shows a strong positive correlation with host mass from the hydrogen-burning limit to M ~ 2Msun. No search has yet been conducted for planets of higher-mass hosts because all existing techniques are insensitive to these…

Brown dwarfs are intermediate objects between planets and stars. The lower end of the brown-dwarf mass range overlaps with the one of massive planets and therefore the distinction between planets and brown-dwarf companions may require to…

The main reasons for searching for pulsars are to: (i) get an accurate census of the neutron star population and its origin and evolution; (ii) connect neutron stars to other stellar populations in the Galaxy and globular clusters; (iii)…

We present results from a high-contrast adaptive optics imaging search for giant planets and brown dwarfs (>1 MJup) around 122 newly identified nearby (<40 pc) young M dwarfs. Half of our targets are younger than 135 Myr and 90% are younger…

Thirty years after the discovery of brown dwarfs, the search for these objects continues, particularly in the vicinity of the Sun. Objects near the Sun are characterized by large proper motions, making them seen as fast-moving objects.…

Brown dwarfs constitute a missing link between low-mass stars and giant planets. Their atmospheres display chemical species typical of planets, and one could wonder whether they also have weather-like patterns. While brown dwarf surface…

Despite traditional thinking, an appreciable population of massive black holes may be lurking in dwarf galaxies. Prior to the last decade, nearly all massive black holes were found in the nuclei of giant galaxies and the existence of…

We report results from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search -- a survey for planets around 200 solar-type stars in the southern hemisphere, which is being carried out on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. Limiting Doppler precisions of 3m/s…

The occurrence rate of young giant planets from direct imaging surveys is a fundamental tracer of the efficiency with which planets form and migrate at wide orbital distances. These measurements have progressively converged to a value of…

In our effort to complete the census of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the immediate Solar Neighborhood, we present spectra, photometry, proper motions, and distance estimates for forty-two low-mass star and brown dwarf candidates…