The REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) is an international group of astronomers founded in 1994 to investigate the stars nearest to the Solar System - with a focus on those within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), but as of 2012 stretching the horizon to 25 parsecs. In part the project hopes a more accurate survey of local star systems will give a better picture of the star systems in the Galaxy as a whole.
Contents
Notable discoveries
The Consortium claims authorship of the The Solar Neighborhood series in the The Astronomical Journal, that began in 1994. This series now numbers almost 40 papers and submissions. The following discoveries are from this series:
RECONS is listed explicitly as an author on papers submitted to the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society since 2004.
The RECONS web page includes the frequently referenced List of the 100 Nearest Star Systems. They update this list as discoveries are made. A list of all RECONS parallaxes is available, as are all papers in The Solar Neighborhood series and The RECONS Movie by Adric Riedel which illustrates data from the RECONS 25 Parsec Database.
Personnel
Todd J. Henry of Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA, is the Consortium's founder and director. Other key astronomers involved in the project include Wei-Chun Jao (GSU), John Subasavage (USNO-Flagstaff), Charlie Finch (USNO-DC), Adric Riedel (Cal Tech), Sergio Dieterich (Carnegie), Jennifer Winters (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), and Phil Ianna (University of Virginia).