Discovery of 16 New Members of the Solar Neighborhood using Proper Motions from CatWISE2020

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of 16 new nearby and unusual cold objects in the solar neighborhood by analyzing proper motion data from CatWISE2020 combined with machine learning, enhancing the census of local celestial bodies.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel method combining proper motion data with machine learning to identify previously unknown nearby cold objects.

Findings

Discovered 16 new dwarfs, including two within 30 parsecs.

Identified a possible young L dwarf and high motion T dwarfs.

Contributed to completing the census of the Sun's neighbors.

Abstract

In an effort to identify nearby and unusual cold objects in the solar neighborhood, we searched for previously unidentified moving objects using CatWISE2020 proper motion data combined with machine learning methods. We paired the motion candidates with their counterparts in 2MASS, UHS, and VHS. Then we searched for white dwarf, brown dwarf, and subdwarf outliers on the resulting color-color diagrams. This resulted in the discovery of 16 new dwarfs including two nearby M dwarfs (< 30 pc), a possible young L dwarf, a high motion early T dwarf and 3 later T dwarfs. This research represents a step forward in completing the census of the Sun's neighbors.