A search for planetary-mass brown dwarf companions to young M dwarfs in the Solar Neighbourhood

Details A search for planetary-mass brown dwarf companions to young M dwarfs in the Solar Neighbourhood A search for planetary-mass brown dwarf companions to young M dwarfs in the Solar Neighbourhood

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.3286r&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #3286

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose to use the unparalleled mid-infrared sensitivity of the Spitzer Space Telescope to search for very low-mass brown dwarf companions to young M dwarfs in the immediate Solar Neighbourhood. Combining our 2MASS-based 20-parsec census of late-type dwarfs with the ROSAT bright source catalogue, we have identified 43 apparently single M dwarfs with activity levels comparable to similar stars in the Pleiades. Half of those stars are newly identified from our survey. Allowing for intrinsic dispersion in activity, all are likely to have ages of less than 500 Myrs, and therefore provide the best prospects of detecting planetary-mass brown dwarfs with temperatures approaching 400K. Surprisingly, only two stars are currently targeted by Spitzer. We propose to obtain deep IRAC images centred on the remaining 41 M dwarfs, with the aim of conducting an inventory of low luminosity companions at separations between 20 and 300 AU. These data will not only provide important information on the frequency and mass-ratio distribution of brown dwarf companions to late-type stars, but will also supply interesting constraints on the likely prevalence of planetary systems in the most common constituents of the Galactic disk.

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