DISCOVERY OF A BINARY BROWN DWARF AT 2 pc FROM THE SUN

作者：Luhman K L^*

来源：Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2013, 767(1): L1.

DOI：10.1088/2041-8205/767/1/L1

• brown dwarfs
• infrared: stars
• proper motions
• solar neighborhood
• stars: low-mass

I am using multi-epoch astrometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to search for new members of the solar neighborhood via their high proper motions. Through this work, I have identified WISE J104915.57-531906.1 as a high proper motion object and have found additional detections in images from the Digitized Sky Survey, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey, and the Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky. I have measured a parallax of 0 ''.496 +/- 0 ''.037 (2.0 +/- 0.15 pc) from the astrometry in these surveys, making WISE J104915.57-531906.1 the third closest system to the Sun. During spectroscopic observations with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph at Gemini Observatory, an i-band acquisition image resolved it as a 1 ''.5 (3 AU) binary. A spectrum was collected for the primary, which I classify as L8 +/- 1. The secondary is probably near the L/T transition as well given that it is only modestly fainter than the primary (Delta i = 0.45 mag).

• 出版日期2013-4-10