THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATA RELEASE 7 SPECTROSCOPIC M DWARF CATALOG. I. DATA

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/141/3/97· OSTI ID:21583198

West, Andrew A; Morgan, Dylan P; Andersen, Jan Marie; Covey, Kevin R; Schluns, Kyle; Jones, David O ^[1]; Bochanski, John J; Pineda, J Sebastian ^[2]; Bell, Keaton J; Kowalski, Adam F; Davenport, James R. A.; Hawley, Suzanne L; Schmidt, Sarah J; Hilton, Eric J ^[3]; Bernat, David; Muirhead, Philip; Rojas-Ayala, Barbara; Schlawin, Everett ^[4]; Gooding, Mary ^[5]; Dhital, Saurav ^[6]

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1. Department of Astronomy, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)
2. MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
4. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, 610 Space Sciences Building, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
5. Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Wells College, 170 Main Street, Aurora, NY 13026 (United States)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 6301 Stevenson Center, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)

We present a spectroscopic catalog of 70,841 visually inspected M dwarfs from the seventh data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For each spectrum, we provide measurements of the spectral type, a number of molecular band heads, and the H{alpha}, H{beta}, H{gamma}, H{delta}, and Ca II K emission lines. In addition, we calculate the metallicity-sensitive parameter {zeta} and identify a relationship between {zeta} and the g - r and r - z colors of M dwarfs. We assess the precision of our spectral types (which were assigned by individual examination), review the bulk attributes of the sample, and examine the magnetic activity properties of M dwarfs, in particular those traced by the higher order Balmer transitions. Our catalog is cross-matched to Two Micron All Sky Survey infrared data, and contains photometric distances for each star. Finally, we identify eight new late-type M dwarfs that are possibly within 25 pc of the Sun. Future studies will use these data to thoroughly examine magnetic activity and kinematics in late-type M dwarfs and examine the chemical and dynamical history of the local Milky Way.

• OSTI ID: 21583198
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 141, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/141/3/97; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ABUNDANCE
CATALOGS
DISTANCE
MILKY WAY
SUN
DOCUMENT TYPES
GALAXIES
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
STARS