The Discovery of a Companion to the Very Cool Dwarf Gliese 569B with the Keck Adaptive Optics Facility

Details The Discovery of a Companion to the Very Cool Dwarf Gliese 569B with the Keck Adaptive Optics Facility The Discovery of a Companion to the Very Cool Dwarf Gliese 569B with the Keck Adaptive Optics Facility

Jan 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000apj...529l..37m&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 529, Issue 1, pp. L37-L40.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

48

Stars: Binaries: General, Stars: Evolution, Stars: Formation, Stars: Individual: Alphanumeric: Gl 569, Stars: Low-Mass, Brown Dwarfs, Surveys

Scientific paper

We report observations obtained with the Keck adaptive optics facility of the nearby (d=9.8 pc) binary Gl 569. The system was known to be composed of a cool primary (dM2) and a very cool secondary (dM8.5) with a separation of 5" (49 AU). We have found that Gl 569B is itself double with a separation of only 0.101"+/-0.002" (1 AU). This detection demonstrates the superb spatial resolution that can be achieved with adaptive optics at Keck. The difference in brightness between Gl 569B and the companion is ~0.5 mag in the J, H, and K' bands. Thus, both objects have similarly red colors and very likely constitute a very low mass binary system. For reasonable assumptions about the age (0.12-1.0 Gyr) and total mass of the system (0.09-0.15 Msolar), we estimate that the orbital period is ~3 yr. Follow-up observations will allow us to obtain an astrometric orbit solution and will yield direct dynamical masses that can constrain evolutionary models of very low mass stars and brown dwarfs.

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