Serge Dieterich's Astronomy Website

Welcome to my website! My name is Serge Dieterich. I am an observational astronomer who studies the smallest types of stars stars in our galaxy and also their even smaller cousins, the sub-stellar objects known as brown dwarfs. I am currently a visiting scientist at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC. I am also a member of the inter-institutional Research Consortium on Nearby Stars, RECONS.

Stars exist in a huge variety of sizes and masses, down from about only 7 percent the mass of our Sun up to more than 100 times the mass of our Sun. However it turns out that the vast majority of stars are very small as far as stars go, with masses less than half the mass of our Sun. These stars are known as red dwarfs, or the so called "spectral type M" stars. Some of these stars are truly tiny for stellar standards, no larger than the planet Jupiter! They are also incredibly faint. If a small M dwarf and our Sun were placed side by side the M dwarf would shine with less than 1% the light of our Sun.

Please take a few minutes to explore my website and find out more about me, my research, and our smallest and closest stellar companions.