A PROPER MOTION SURVEY USING THE FIRST SKY PASS OF NEOWISE-REACTIVATION DATA

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was reactivated in 2013 December (NEOWISE) to search for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. We have conducted a survey using the first sky pass of NEOWISE data and the AllWISE catalog to identify nearby stars and brown dwarfs with large proper motions ( &mgr; total ?> ≳ 250 mas yr−1). A total of 20,548 high proper motion objects were identified, 1006 of which are new discoveries. This survey has uncovered a significantly larger sample of fainter objects ( W 2 ≳ 13 ?> mag) than the previous WISE motion surveys of Luhman and Kirkpatrick et al. Many of these objects are predicted to be new L and T dwarfs based on near- and mid-infrared colors. Using estimated spectral types along with distance estimates, we have identified several objects that likely belong to the nearby solar neighborhood (d < 25 pc). We have followed up 19 of these new discoveries with near-infrared or optical spectroscopy, focusing on potentially nearby objects, objects with the latest predicted spectral types, and potential late-type subdwarfs. This subset includes six M dwarfs, five of which are likely subdwarfs, as well as eight L dwarfs and five T dwarfs, many of which have blue near-infrared colors. As an additional supplement, we provide 2MASS and AllWISE positions and photometry for every object found in our search, as well as 2MASS/AllWISE calculated proper motions.