Bibcode
DOI
Béjar, V. J. S.; Zapatero Osorio, M. R.; Pérez-Garrido, A.; Alvarez-Iglesias, C. A.; Martín, E. L.; Rebolo, R.; Villó-Pérez, I.; Díaz-Sánchez, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 673, Issue 2, pp. L185-L189.
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2
2008
Journal
Citations
82
Refereed citations
77
Description
We present the discovery of a companion near the deuterium-burning mass
limit located at a very wide distance, at an angular separation of
4.6''+/-0.1'' (projected distance of ~ 670 AU)
from UScoCTIO 108, a brown dwarf of the very young Upper Scorpius
association. Optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy
confirm the cool nature of both objects, with spectral types of M7 and
M9.5, respectively, and that they are bona fide members of the
association, showing low gravity and features of youth. Their masses,
estimated from the comparison of their bolometric luminosities and
theoretical models for the age range of the association, are 60+/-20 and
14+2-8 MJup, respectively. The
existence of this object around a brown dwarf at this wide orbit
suggests that the companion is unlikely to have formed in a disk based
on current planet formation models. Because this system is rather weakly
bound, they probably did not form through dynamical ejection of stellar
embryos.
Related projects
Very Low Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs and Planets
Our goal is to study the processes that lead to the formation of low mass stars, brown dwarfs and planets and to characterize the physical properties of these objects in various evolutionary stages. Low mass stars and brown dwarfs are likely the most numerous type of objects in our Galaxy but due to their low intrinsic luminosity they are not so
Rafael
Rebolo López