Surveying the Neighborhood of the Sun

In the spirit of the next human census to be carried out on planet Earth in 2010, the RECONS (Research Consortium On Nearby Stars) group at Georgia State University is gearing up to complete a decadal census of the Sun's neighbors. We'll present the latest results on the stars, brown dwarfs, and planets within 10 parsecs (about 33 light years) of the Sun and place the results into context for our Milky Way Galaxy. When compared to what we knew in 2000, our closest 300+ neighbors are significantly cooler, redder and more populated with planets than 10 years ago.