Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate

Details Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate

1998-11-21

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9811346v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

to appear in MNRAS, pink pages; 6 pages with 1 jpg, 1 postscript figure

Scientific paper

10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02251.x

We have used the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck II telescope to observe the brown dwarf candidate D04 (Hawkins et al, 1998). The spectrum matches that of a spectral-type M7 dwarf, implying a photospheric temperature of $\approx 2600$K. This is consistent with the available (R-I)$_C$ and (I-K) colours. If the parallax measured by Hawkins et al is correct, then the implication is that D04 has a radius of $\sim 0.035 R_\odot$, or one-third that of Jupiter. This contradicts the predictions made by current stellar models that electron degeneracy leads to nearly constant radii for stars and brown dwarfs at masses below 0.1 M$_\odot$. We suggest that an equally valid interpretation of the data is that D04 is a VB8 analogue at a distance of $\approx 150$ parsecs.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical spectroscopy of a brown dwarf candidate will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-282623