Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-08-11
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
24 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Scientific paper
10.1086/592379
We report the discovery of a wide (135+/-25 AU), unusually blue L5 companion 2MASS J17114559+4028578 to the nearby M4.5 dwarf G 203-50 as a result of a targeted search for common proper motion pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Adaptive Optics imaging with Subaru indicates that neither component is a nearly equal mass binary with separation > 0.18", and places limits on the existence of additional faint companions. An examination of TiO and CaH features in the primary's spectrum is consistent with solar metallicity and provides no evidence that G 203-50 is metal poor. We estimate an age for the primary of 1-5 Gyr based on activity. Assuming coevality of the companion, its age, gravity and metallicity can be constrained from properties of the primary, making it a suitable benchmark object for the calibration of evolutionary models and for determining the atmospheric properties of peculiar blue L dwarfs. The low total mass (M_tot=0.21+/-0.03 M_sun), intermediate mass ratio (q=0.45+/-0.14), and wide separation of this system demonstrate that the star formation process is capable of forming wide, weakly bound binary systems with low mass and BD components. Based on the sensitivity of our search we find that no more than 2.2% of early-to-mid M dwarfs (9.0 < M_V < 13.0) have wide substellar companions with m > 0.06 M_sun.
Doyon Rene
Jayawardhana Ray
Lafreniere David
Radigan Jacqueline
No associations
LandOfFree
Discovery of a Wide Substellar Companion to a Nearby Low-Mass Star 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 Discovery of a Wide Substellar Companion to a Nearby Low-Mass Star, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Discovery of a Wide Substellar Companion to a Nearby Low-Mass Star will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-202405