Dr. Sebastien Lepine

Astronomical evidence has long been suggesting that a majority of stars occur in pairs, or in multiple systems. Recent developments in the nascent field of exoplanets also suggest that most stars have retinues of planets. Many stars are also found to have sub-stellar (brown dwarf) companions. Our best chance at resolving and imaging the individual subcomponents of stellar systems, is to target those stars that are closest to our Sun. I will describe a long-term plan to systematically dissect star systems in the vicinity of the Sun using various high angular resolution techniques. I will show that my current, ongoing survey of stars with large proper motions, a goldmine for the identification of nearby stars, is an ideal, and necessary starting point to future imaging surveys of nearby stellar systems.