DENIS J081730.0-615520: AN OVERLOOKED MID-T DWARF IN THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD
- Departement de Physique and Observatoire du Mont Megantic, Universite de Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
- Departamento de Fisica y AstronomIa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de ValparaIso, Ave. Gran Bretana 1111, Playa Ancha, Casilla 53, ValparaIso (Chile)
Recent wide-field near-infrared surveys have uncovered a large number of cool brown dwarfs (BDs), extending the temperature sequence down to less than 500 K and constraining the faint end of the luminosity function (LF). One interesting implication of the derived LF is that the BD census in the immediate (<10 pc) solar neighborhood is still largely incomplete, and some bright (J < 16) BDs remain to be identified in existing surveys. These objects are especially interesting as they are the ones that can be studied in most detail, especially with techniques that require large fluxes (e.g., time-variability, polarimetry, and high-resolution spectroscopy) that cannot realistically be applied to objects uncovered by deep surveys. By cross-matching the DEep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern sky (DENIS) and the Two Micron All Sky Survey point-source catalogs, we have identified an overlooked BD-DENIS J081730.0-615520-that is the brightest field mid-T dwarf in the sky (J = 13.6). We present astrometry and spectroscopy follow-up observations of this BD. Our data indicate a spectral type T6 and a distance-from parallax measurement-of 4.9 {+-} 0.3 pc, placing this mid-T dwarf among the three closest isolated BDs to the Sun.
- OSTI ID:
- 21451028
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 718, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/1/L38; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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