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TOPIC: SDSS J1416+13AB

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 30 22:36 2010

Brown dwarf	Permalink

Star-struck astronomers from the University of Hertfordshire have discovered what is possibly the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside the solar system. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 30 00:57 2010

RE: SDSS J1416+13AB	Permalink

An international team of astronomers using several telescopes has discovered what appears to be the coolest star-like body known, a brown dwarf called SDSS1416+13B. The dim ball of gas is roughly 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius). NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope helped nail down the temperature of the object by observing at a particular range of light called mid-infrared. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 29 14:48 2010

	Permalink
Star-struck astronomers from the University of Hertfordshire have discovered what is possibly the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside the solar system. The discovery, a so-called brown dwarf known as SDSS1416+13B, has an estimated temperature of 500 Kelvin, or 227 degrees Celsius. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 29 13:58 2010

SDSS1416+13B	Permalink

An international team, led by astronomers at the University of Hertfordshire have discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, a discovery has been made of an object which is technically known as a brown dwarf. What has excited astronomers are its very peculiar colours, which actually make it appear either very blue or very red, depending on which part of the spectrum is used to look at it. The object is known as SDSS1416+13B and it is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A. The brighter member of the pair was detected in visible light by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By contrast, SDSS1416+13B is only seen in infrared light. The pair is located between 15 and 50 light years from the solar system, which is quite close in astronomical terms. Read more __________________

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 29 13:56 2010

SDSS J1416+13AB	Permalink

Title: The discovery of a very cool binary system Authors: Ben Burningham, S. K. Leggett, P.W. Lucas, D.J. Pinfield, R.L. Smart, A.C. Day-Jones, H.R.A. Jones, D.Murray, E. Nickson, M. Tamura, Z. Zhang, N. Lodieu, C.G. Tinney, M. R. Zapatero Osorio We report the discovery of a very cool d/sdL7+T7.5p common proper motion binary system, SDSS J1416+13AB, found by cross-matching the UKIDSS Large Area Survey Data Release 5 against the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. The d/sdL7 is blue in J-H and H-K and has other features suggestive of low-metallicity and/or high gravity. The T7.5p displays spectral peculiarity seen before in earlier type dwarfs discovered in UKIDSS LAS DR4, and referred to as CH4-J-early peculiarity. We suggest that CH4-J-early peculiarity arises from low-metallicity and/or high-gravity, and speculate as to its use for classifying T dwarfs. UKIDSS and follow-up UKIRT/WFCAM photometry shows the T dwarf to have the bluest near infrared colours yet seen for such an object with H-K = -1.31±0.17. Warm Spitzer IRAC photometry shows the T dwarf to have extremely red H-[4.5] = 4.86±0.04, which is the reddest yet seen for a substellar object. The lack of parallax measurement for the pair limits our ability to estimate parameters for the system. However, applying a conservative distance estimate of 5-15 pc suggests a projected separation in range 45-135 AU. By comparing H-K:H-[4.5] colours of the T dwarf to spectral models we estimate that Teff = 500 K and [M/H]~-0.30, with log g ~ 5.0. This suggests a mass of ~30 MJupiter for the T dwarf and an age of ~10 Gyr for the system. The primary would then be a 75MJupiter object with log g ~ 5.5 and a relatively dust-free Teff ~ 1500K atmosphere. Given the unusual properties of the system we caution that these estimates are uncertain. We eagerly await parallax measurements and high-resolution imaging which will constrain the parameters further. Read more (235kb, PDF) __________________

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