Bibcode
Barrado y Navascués, D.; Zapatero Osorio, M. R.; Béjar, V. J. S.; Rebolo, R.; Martín, E. L.; Mundt, R.; Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.377, p.L9-L13 (2001)
Advertised on:
10
2001
Journal
Citations
73
Refereed citations
62
Description
We have obtained low resolution optical spectra of 15 isolated planetary
mass objects (IPMOs) in the sigma Orionis cluster, and derived spectral
types by comparison with nearby M and L dwarfs. The spectral types are
in the range late M - mid L, in agreement with our expectations based on
colors and magnitudes for bona fide members. Therefore, most of these
objects have masses below the deuterium burning limit. About 2/3 show
Hα in emission at our spectral resolution. From our spectroscopic
and photometric data, we infer that three IPMOs in this sample may be
binaries with components of similar masses. These results confirm that
the substellar mass function of the sigma Orionis cluster, in the form
dN/dM, keeps rising in the planetary domain. These observations were
collected at the VLT of the European Southern Observatories.