Discovery of Two T Dwarf Companions with the Spitzer Space Telescope

Abstract

We report the discovery of T dwarf companions to the nearby stars HN Peg (G0 V, 18.4 pc, τ ~ 0.3 Gyr) and HD 3651 (K0 V, 11.1 pc, τ ~ 7 Gyr). During an ongoing survey of 5' × 5' fields surrounding stars in the solar neighborhood with the Infrared Array Camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, we identified these companions as candidate T dwarfs based on their mid-infrared colors. Using near-infrared spectra obtained with SpeX at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, we confirm the presence of methane absorption that characterizes T dwarfs and measure spectral types of T2.5 ± 0.5 and T7.5 ± 0.5 for HN Peg B and HD 3651B, respectively. By comparing our Spitzer data to images from the Two Micron All Sky Survey obtained several years earlier, we find that the proper motions of HN Peg B and HD 3651B are consistent with those of the primaries, confirming their companionship. A comparison of their luminosities to the values predicted by theoretical evolutionary models implies masses of 0.021 ± 0.009 and 0.051 ± 0.014 M_⊙ for HN Peg B and HD 3651B, respectively. In addition, the models imply an effective temperature for HN Peg B that is significantly lower than the values derived for other T dwarfs at similar spectral types, which is the same behavior reported by Metchev & Hillenbrand for the young late L dwarf HD 203030B. Thus, the temperature of the L/T transition appears to depend on surface gravity. Meanwhile, HD 3651B is the first substellar companion directly imaged around a star that is known to harbor a close-in planet from radial velocity surveys. The discovery of this companion supports the notion that the high eccentricities of close-in planets like that near HD 3651 may be the result of perturbations by low-mass companions at wide separations.

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