Discovery of a Nearby Young Brown Dwarf Disk

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2020 · The Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ABACCD· OSTI ID:23013369

Schutte, Maria C.; Lawson, Kellen D.; Wisniewski, John P. ^[1]; Kuchner, Marc J. ^[2]; Silverberg, Steven M. ^[3]; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella C.; Kiman, Rocio ^[4]; Gagné, Jonathan ^[5]; Meisner, Aaron ^[6]; Schneider, Adam C. ^[7]; Bans, Alissa S. ^[8]; Debes, John H. ^[9]; Kovacevic, Natalie ^[10]; Bosch, Milton K. D.; Durantini Luca, Hugo A.; Holden, Jonathan; Hyogo, Michiharu ^[11]

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1. Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, 440 W. Brooks Street, Norman, OK 73019 (United States)
2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
4. American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024 (United States)
5. Institut de Recherche sur les Exoplanètes, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, PO Box 6128 Centre-Ville STN, Montreal QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
6. NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
7. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States)
8. Department of Physics, Emory University, 201 Dowman Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322 (United States)
9. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
10. Physics Department, Western Illinois University, 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 61455 (United States)
11. Disk Detective Citizen Scientist (United States)

We report the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf with a disk at 102 pc from the Sun, WISEA J120037.79−784508.3 (W1200−7845), via the Disk Detective citizen science project. We establish that W1200−7845 is located in the 3.7{sub −1.4}{sup +4.6} Myr old ε Cha association. Its spectral energy distribution (SED) exhibits clear evidence of an infrared (IR) excess, indicative of the presence of a warm circumstellar disk. Modeling this warm disk, we find the data are best fit using a power-law description with a slope α = −0.94, which suggests that it is a young, Class II type disk. Using a single blackbody disk fit, we find T{sub eff,disk}=521 K and L{sub IR}/L{sub ∗}=0.14. The near-IR spectrum of W1200−7845 matches a spectral type of M6.0 γ ± 0.5, which corresponds to a low surface gravity object, and lacks distinctive signatures of strong Paβ or Brγ accretion. Both our SED fitting and spectral analysis indicate that the source is cool (T {sub eff} = 2784–2850 K), with a mass of 42–58 M {sub Jup}, well within the brown dwarf regime. The proximity of this young brown dwarf disk makes the system an ideal benchmark for investigating the formation and early evolution of brown dwarfs.

• OSTI ID: 23013369
• Journal Information: The Astronomical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 160; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BENCHMARKS
DWARF STARS
ENERGY SPECTRA
GRAVITATION
INFRARED SPECTRA
MASS
SIMULATION
STAR EVOLUTION