Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21734314b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #343.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Other
Scientific paper
Ross 458C is a widely-separated (1100 AU), faint companion to the nearby M0.5 Ve + M7 Ross 458AB binary, identified in the UKIDSS survey by Goldman et al. and Scholz and suspected by both of being a young brown dwarf. We obtained near-infrared spectroscopy of this source with the newly-commissioned Folded-Port Infrared Echellette (FIRE) at the Magellan Telescopes, which revealed the presence of strong methane and water absorption consistent with a T8 dwarf. The age of this system (150-800 Myr) and the low luminosity of the companion (log Lbol/Lsun = -5.62±0.03) indicate a mass at or below the deuterium burning limit. This is verified through atmospheric model fits to the spectral data, which indicate a low temperature (635 [+25,-35] K), a low surface gravity (log g 4 cgs) and a model-dependent mass of <=6 Jupiter masses. The spectral models further indicate that condensate clouds are present in the atmosphere of Ross 458C, in contrast to results for other cold T dwarfs. These results provide further evidence that clouds are an important opacity source in the spectra of young substellar objects, from planetary-mass brown dwarfs in young clusters to directly-imaged exoplanets. Moreover, its low mass, cool atmosphere and physical association with a stellar system give Ross 458C all of the trappings of a planet, albeit one whose cosmogony may not conform with current planet formation theories.
This result includes data gathered with the 6.5-m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Support for the modeling work of D.S. was provided by NASA through the Spitzer Science Center.
Bochanski John J.
Burgasser Adam Jonathan
Cushing Michael. C.
Forrest William John
Mamajek Eric E.
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