Rotation Periods and Galactic Kinematics for Nearby M Dwarfs

Using photometry from the MEarth Project, we measured rotation periods for 387 nearby, mid-to-late M dwarfs in the northern hemisphere. This work is described in Newton et al. (2016). The link below provides the data table containing these measurements:

Kinematics and Rotation Periods for All Rotators and Non-rotators

Optical Magnitudes and Metallicities of Nearby M Dwarfs

Many of MEarth's target stars have optical magnitudes measured from photographic plates, often with significant uncertainties and biases. This source of error can propogate into everything we know about the system, including its effective temperature, luminosity, and the location of its habitable zone where liquid water can exist on any planets it may host. We have recently used the MEarth data set itself to uniformly measure the broadband optical magnitude of the MEarth target stars and used this information to estimate the metal content of each star as well. This work is described in Dittmann et al. (2016). Below we link the data tables provided in this work.

The MEarth CCD quantum efficiency and filter transmission curve

MEarth magnitudes of Landolt standard stars

MEarth magnitudes and estimated metalliticies for 1802 nearby M Dwarfs

MEarth - 2MASS K colors for [Fe/H] = -0.1 and [Fe/H] = 0.0 main sequences

MEarth Parallaxes of Nearby M Dwarfs

M dwarfs are excellent targets for transiting exoplanet searches, but they sometimes pose a big challenge too: the distances to many of them have never been measured. Until now! Using MEarth imaging, we have estimated trigonometric parallax measurements to 1507 of the nearby M dwarfs in our sample. Jason Dittmann led the analysis for this project and describes the work in Dittmann et al. (2014). Click the link below to access a data table containing these new parallaxes:

MEarth Trigonometric Parallaxes for 1507 Nearby M Dwarfs

The stars in this table represent a significant fraction of the Northern hemisphere mid-to-late M dwarfs within 25pc. Based on the new parallaxes, we provide updated estimates of the masses and radii of these stars, which are more precise and more accurate than the previously available estimates for most targets. Starting with DR3, these parallax measurements are included in the compilation of stellar properties that accompany the photometric data release. We hope exoplaneteers and stellar astronomers alike will find these data useful!