Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 105
This version created on 05 October 2006

A Palomar Adaptive Optics Coronagraphic Survey of TPF-C Candidate
Targets


Joseph Carson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Kyle Hiner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Karl Stapelfeldt, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Alex Rudolph, Cal Poly Pomona

We present here a status report on an ongoing Palomar Hale Telescope
adaptive optics coronagraphic survey that searches for sub-stellar
companions around 28 TPF-C candidate targets.  Sub-stellar objects
found around such targets could have important implications for
space-based observing programs like TPF-C, that wish to image
narrow-separation planetary objects;  an existent brown dwarf
companion, for instance, might degrade the sensitivity of
narrow-separation space-based observations by way of its interfering
light;  or, the existence of an orbiting brown dwarf could affect the
likelihood of a narrow-separation planetary orbit.  Our survey
therefore helps constrain and direct TPF-C candidate target selection,
while providing scientifically important substellar companion
information on the nearby stellar neighborhood.

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