2MASS J05185995-2828372: Discovery of an Unresolved L/T Binary
Abstract
We present the peculiar near-infrared spectrum of the newly discovered brown dwarf 2MASS J05185995-2828372, identified in the Two Micron All-Sky Survey. Features characteristic of both L and T dwarfs are present, namely strong carbon monoxide absorption in K-band, strong methane absorption in J- and H-bands, and red near-infrared colors. We consider several scenarios that could produce these features and conclude that the object is most likely to be an unresolved L/T binary system. We discuss how the estimated photometric properties of this object are consistent with the observed J-band brightening of brown dwarfs between late-L and early-T dwarfs, making detailed study of this system an important probe of the L/T transition.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0402172,
title = {2MASS J05185995-2828372: Discovery of an Unresolved L/T Binary},
author = {Kelle L. Cruz and Adam J. Burgasser and I. Neill Reid and James Liebert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0402172},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures (2 color), accepted to ApJ Letters