FIRes/Gorjian

Finding Infrared Excess in the SEIP (fIRes) will be looking for stars with infrared excesses in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog.

M class dwarf stars are the most common type of star but relatively little research has been conducted to determine the abundance of terrestrial exoplanets orbiting them. An approach to establishing the prevalence of terrestrial exoplanets is the detection, using infrared excess (IRXS), of a debris disk orbiting the star. A survey of the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) catalog, a collection of nearly 42 million point sources obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope during its 5+ year cryogenic mission, is an excellent place to start a search for infrared evidence of debris disks. In this study, we will examine isolated sources in the SEIP with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) greater than 5 in four IR wavelength channels (3.6, 4.5, 8, and 24 microns) to search for sources with IRXS in order to obtain a large and reliable set of candidates. Using Gaia distances we will refine the search to main sequence M stars in the SEIP. This selection of M stars with an infrared excess will create the largest catalog of red Bendwarf stars with debris disks to date for potential follow up for the presence of rocky exoplanets.