Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21335105b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #351.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.491
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Precise radial velocity measurements of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs (Ultracool Dwarfs; UCDs) are important both for the study UCDs in binary systems and the search for planetary companions to UCDs. Binary systems provide the opportunity to measure fundamental physical properties of the components and to test theoretical models of stellar structure, yet relatively few spectroscopic UCD binary systems are known. We are unsure if UCDs form planets at a similar rate to sun-like stars, even though the low mass of the UCD affords several observational advantages that should make the detection of super-Earths in the Habitable Zone (HZ) a possibility. UCDs are both intrinsically faint and very cool, emitting the majority of their flux at near infrared (NIR) wavelengths where techniques for precise radial velocity measurements have yet to be developed. I will present results from an RV survey carried out over four years with the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck telescope to search for both spectroscopic binaries and planets. I have developed a technique that uses telluric absorption features as a wavelength reference to achieve an RV precision of 200 m/s. I will discuss the sensitivity of this survey to binary systems and planets and present observations of several L dwarf binaries. I will also discuss photometric observations of these targets obtained with the Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope (PAIRITEL), a fully robotic NIR observatory, as well as prospects for detecting terrestrial planets transiting UCDs. Lastly, I will outline future prospects for precise RV measurements of UCDs at red optical wavelengths.
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