We present a Mass-Luminosity Relation (MLR) for red dwarfs spanning a range of masses from 0.62 M to the end of the stellar main sequence at 0.08 M . The relation is based on 47 stars for which dynamical masses have been determined, primarily using astrometric data from Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) 3 and 1r, white-light interferometers on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and radial velocity data from McDonald Observatory. For our HST/FGS sample of 15 binaries, component mass errors range from 0.4% to 4.0% with a median error of 1.8%. With these and masses from other sources, we construct a V -band MLR for the lower main sequence with 47 stars, and a K-band MLR with 45 stars with fit residuals half of those of the V -band.We use GJ 831 AB as an example, obtaining an absolute trigonometric parallax, π abs = 125.3 ± 0.3 milliseconds of arc, with orbital elements yielding M A = 0.270 ± 0.004M and M B = 0.145 ± 0.002M . The mass precision rivals that derived for eclipsing binaries.

With the NEOWISE portion of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) project, we have carried out a highly uniform survey of the near-Earth object (NEO) population at thermal infrared wavelengths ranging from 3 to 22 µm, allowing us to refine estimates of their numbers, sizes, and albedos. The NEOWISE survey detected NEOs the same way whether they were previously known or not, subject to the availability of ground-based follow-up observations, resulting in the discovery of more than 130 new NEOs. The survey's uniform sensitivity, observing cadence, and image quality have permitted extrapolation of the 428 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) detected by NEOWISE during the fully cryogenic portion of the WISE mission to the larger population. We find that there are 981±19 NEAs larger than 1 km and 20,500±3000 NEAs larger than 100 m. We show that the Spaceguard goal of detecting 90% of all 1 km NEAs has been met, and that the cumulative size distribution is best represented by a broken power law with a slope of 1.32±0.14 below 1.5 km. This power law slope produces ∼ 13, 200±1,900 NEAs with D >140 m. Although previous studies predict another break in the cumulative size distribution below D ∼50-100 m, resulting in an increase in the number of NEOs in this size range and smaller, we did not detect enough objects to comment on this increase. The overall number for the NEA population between 100-1000 m is lower than previous estimates. The numbers of near-Earth comets and potentially hazardous NEOs will be the subject of future work.Road,

The Deep Ecliptic Survey ( DES)-a search optimized for the discovery of Kuiper belt objects ( KBOs) with the Blanco and Mayall 4 m telescopes at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and Kitt Peak National Observatory-has covered 550 deg 2 from its inception in 1998 through the end of 2003. This survey has a mean 50% sensitivity at VR magnitude 22.5. We report here the discoveries of 320 designated KBOs and Centaurs for the period 2000 March through 2003 December and describe improvements to our discovery and recovery procedures. Our data and the data products needed to reproduce our analyses in this paper are available through the NOAO survey database. Here we present a dynamical classification scheme, based on the behavior of orbital integrations over 10 Myr. The dynamical classes, in order of testing, are ''Resonant,'' ''Centaur,'' ''Scattered-Near,'' ''Scattered-Extended,'' and ''Classical.'' ( These terms are capitalized when referring to our rigorous definitions.) Of the 382 total designated KBOs discovered by the DES, a subset of 196 objects have sufficiently accurate orbits for dynamical classification. Summary information is given for an additional 240 undesignated objects also discovered by the DES from its inception through the end of 2003. The number of classified DES objects (uncorrected for observational bias) are Classical, 96; Resonant, 54; Scattered-Near, 24; Scattered-Extended, 9; and Centaur, 13. We use subsets of the DES objects (which can have observational biases removed ) and larger samples to perform dynamical analyses on the Kuiper belt. The first of these is a determination of the Kuiper belt plane ( KBP), for which the Classical objects with inclinations less than 5 from the mean orbit pole yield a pole at R.A. = 273N92 AE 0N62 and decl. = 66N70 AE 0N20 (J2000), consistent with the invariable plane of the solar system. A general method for removing observational biases from the DES data set is presented and used to find a provisional magnitude distribution and the distribution of orbital inclinations relative to the KBP. A power-law model fit to the cumulative magnitude distribution of all KBOs discovered by the DES in the VR filter yields an index of 0:86 AE 0:10 (with the efficiency parameters for the DES fitted simultaneously with the population power law). With the DES sensitivity parameters fixed, we derive power-law indices of 0:74 AE 0:05, 0:52 AE 0:08, and 0:74 AE 0:15, respectively, for the Classical, Resonant, and Scattered classes. Plans for calibration of the DES detection efficiency function and DES magnitudes are discussed. The inclination distribution confirms the presence of ''hot'' and ''cold'' populations; when the geometric sin i factor is removed from the inclination distribution function, the cold population shows a concentrated ''core'' with a full width at half-maximum of approximately 4N6, while the hot population appears as a ''halo, '' extending beyond 30 . The inclination distribution is used to infer the KBO distribution in the sky, as a func...