Bibcode
Caballero, J. A.; Martín, E. L.; Dobbie, P. D.; Barrado Y Navascués, D.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 460, Issue 2, December III 2006, pp.635-640
Advertised on:
12
2006
Journal
Citations
39
Refereed citations
34
Description
Context: .Free-floating planetary-mass objects have masses below the
deuterium burning mass limit at about 13 Jupiter masses, and have mostly
been found in very young open clusters. Their origin and relationship to
stars and brown dwarfs are still a mystery. Aims: .The recent
detection by direct imaging of three giant planets at wide separation
(50-250 AU) from their primaries has raised the question about the true
"isolation" of planetary-mass objects in clusters. Our goal was to test
the possibility that some free-floating planetary-mass objects could in
fact be part of wide planetary systems. Methods: .We searched in
the literature for stellar and brown-dwarf candidates members of the
σ Orionis cluster (~3 Ma, ~360 pc) at small angular separations
from published candidate planetary-mass objects. We found one candidate
planetary system composed of an X-ray source, SE 70, and a
planetary-mass object, S Ori 68, separated by only 4.6 arcsec. In order
to assess the cluster membership of the X-ray source, we obtained
mid-resolution optical spectroscopy using ISIS on the William Herschel
Telescope. We also compiled additional data on the target from available
astronomical catalogues. Results: .We have found that SE 70
follows the spectrophotometric sequence of the cluster and displays
spectroscopic features of youth, such as lithium in absorption and
chromospheric Hα emission. The radial velocity is consistent with
cluster membership. Hence, SE 70 is very probably a member of the
σ Orionis cluster. The projected physical separation between SE 70
and S Ori 68 is 1700~± 300 AU at the distance of the cluster. If
a common proper motion is confirmed in the near future, the system would
be composed of an M5-6 brown dwarf with an estimated mass of ~45 M_Jup
and an L5 ± 2 giant planet with an estimated mass of ~5 M_Jup. It
would be the widest and one of the lowest-mass planetary systems known
so far.