SIMBAD references

2006ApJ...641L.141B - Astrophys. J., 641, L141-L144 (2006/April-3)

Discovery of a brown dwarf very close to the Sun: a methane-rich brown dwarf companion to the low-mass star SCR 1845-6357.

BILLER B.A., KASPER M., CLOSE L.M., BRANDNER W. and KELLNER S.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present VLT/NACO SDI images of the very nearby star SCR 1845-6357 (hereafter SCR 1845). SCR 1845 is a recently discovered M8.5 star just 3.85 pc from the Sun. Using the capabilities of the unique SDI device, we discovered a substellar companion to SCR 1845 at a separation of 4.5 AU (1".170±0".003 on the sky) and fainter by 3.57±0.057 mag in the 1.575 µm SDI filter. This substellar companion has an H magnitude of 13.16+0.31–0.26 (absolute H magnitude of 15.30+0.31–0.26), making it likely the brightest mid-T dwarf known. The Simultaneous Differential Imager (SDI) consists of three narrowband filters placed around the 1.6 µm methane absorption feature characteristic of T dwarfs (Teff<1200 K). The flux of the substellar companion drops by a factor of 2.7±0.1 between the SDI F1 (1.575 µm) and F3 (1.625 µm) filters, consistent with strong methane absorption in a substellar companion. We estimate a spectral type of T5.5±1 for the companion based on the strength of this methane break. The chances that this object is a background T dwarf are vanishingly small–and there is no isolated background T dwarf in this part of the sky, according to 2MASS. Thus, it is a bound companion, hereafter SCR 1845B. For an age range of 100 Myr to 10 Gyr and spectral type range of T4.5-T6.5, we find a mass range of (9-65)MJupfor SCR 1845B from the Baraffe et al. ``COND'' models. SCR 1845AB is the 24th-closest stellar system to the Sun (at 3.85 pc); the only brown dwarf system closer to the Sun is the binary brown dwarf ε Indi Ba-Bb (at 3.626 pc). In addition, this is the first T dwarf companion discovered around a low-mass star.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): Stars: Binaries: Close - Instrumentation: Adaptive Optics - Stars: Imaging - Stars: Low-Mass, Brown Dwarfs

CDS comments: Parag. 3.3 : 2MASS J0415 = 2MASS J04151954-0935066, 2MASS J0937 = 2MASS J09373487+2931409

Simbad objects: 11

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