A Search for Companions to Nearby Brown Dwarfs: The Binary DENIS-P J1228.2-1547
- Creators
- Martín, E. L.
- Brandner, W.
- Basri, G.
Abstract
Hubble Space Telescope imaging observations of two nearby brown dwarfs, DENIS-P J1228.2-1547 and Kelu 1, made with the near-infrared camera and multiobject spectrometer (NICMOS), show that the DENIS object is resolved into two components of nearly equal brightness with a projected separation of 0.275 arc second (5 astronomical units for a distance of 18 parsecs). This binary system will be able to provide the first dynamical measurement of the masses of two brown dwarfs in only a few years. Upper limits to the mass of any unseen companion in Kelu 1 yield a planet of 7 Jupiter masses aged 0.5 × 10^9years, which would have been detected at a separation larger than about 4 astronomical units. This example demonstrates that giant planets could be detected by direct imaging if they exist in Jupiter-like orbits around nearby young brown dwarfs.
Additional Information
© 1999 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 17 December 1998; accepted 2 February 1999. This paper is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract NAS5-26555. We thank the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute for granting us HST Director Discretionary time. G.B. acknowledges the support of NSF through grant AST96-18439. E.L.M. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 52080
- DOI
- 10.1126/science.283.5408.1718
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141124-080246281
- NAS5-26555
- NASA
- AST96-18439
- NSF
- Ministerio de Educación y Cultura
- Created
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2014-11-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field