The Gemini NICI Planet-finding Campaign: Discovery of a Close Substellar Companion to the Young Debris Disk Star PZ Tel

Details The Gemini NICI Planet-finding Campaign: Discovery of a Close Substellar Companion to the Young Debris Disk Star PZ Tel The Gemini NICI Planet-finding Campaign: Discovery of a Close Substellar Companion to the Young Debris Disk Star PZ Tel

Sep 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010apj...720l..82b&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 720, Issue 1, pp. L82-L87 (2010).

Physics

Optics

18

Brown Dwarfs, Instrumentation: Adaptive Optics, Planetary Systems, Planets And Satellites: Detection, Stars: Pre-Main Sequence

Scientific paper

We report the discovery of a tight substellar companion to the young solar analog PZ Tel, a member of the β Pic moving group observed with high-contrast adaptive optics imaging as part of the Gemini Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager Planet-Finding Campaign. The companion was detected at a projected separation of 16.4 ± 1.0 AU (0farcs33 ± 0farcs01) in 2009 April. Second-epoch observations in 2010 May demonstrate that the companion is physically associated and shows significant orbital motion. Monte Carlo modeling constrains the orbit of PZ Tel B to eccentricities >0.6. The near-IR colors of PZ Tel B indicate a spectral type of M7 ± 2 and thus this object will be a new benchmark companion for studies of ultracool, low-gravity photospheres. Adopting an age of 12+8 -4 Myr for the system, we estimate a mass of 36 ± 6 M Jup based on the Lyon/DUSTY evolutionary models. PZ Tel B is one of the few young substellar companions directly imaged at orbital separations similar to those of giant planets in our own solar system. Additionally, the primary star PZ Tel A shows a 70 μm emission excess, evidence for a significant quantity of circumstellar dust that has not been disrupted by the orbital motion of the companion.
Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Brazil), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina).

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