THE ULTRA COOL BROWN DWARF COMPANION OF WD 0806-661B: AGE, MASS, AND FORMATION MECHANISM

Journal Article · Tue May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/732/2/L29· OSTI ID:21562688

Rodriguez, David R; Zuckerman, B ^[1]; Melis, Carl ^[2]; Song, Inseok ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
2. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093 (United States)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (United States)

We have combined multi-epoch images from the Infrared Side Port Imager on the CTIO 4 m telescope to derive a 3{sigma} limit of J = 21.7 for the ultra cool brown dwarf companion to WD 0806-661 (GJ 3483). We find that J - [4.5] > 4.95, redder than any other brown dwarf known to date. With theoretical evolutionary models and ages 1.5-2.7 Gyr, we estimate the brown dwarf companion to have mass <10-13 M{sub Jup} and temperature {approx}< 400 K, providing evidence that this is among the coolest brown dwarfs currently known. The range of masses for this object is consistent with that anticipated from Jeans-mass fragmentation and we present this as the likely formation mechanism. However, we find that substellar companions of similar mass ({approx}7-17 M{sub Jup}) are distributed over a wide range of semimajor axes, which suggests that giant planet and low-mass brown dwarf formation overlap in this mass range.

• OSTI ID: 21562688
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 732, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/732/2/L29; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
FRAGMENTATION
MASS
PLANETS
STARS