In the course of an imaging survey we have detected a visual companion to the intermediate-mass star HR 6037. In this letter, we present two epoch observations of the binary with NACO/VLT, and near-IR spectroscopy of the secondary with ISAAC/VLT. The NACO observations allow us to confirm HR 6037B as a co-moving companion. Its J and H band ISAAC spectra suggest the object has an spectral type of M9+-1, with a surface gravity intermediate between that of 10 Myr dwarfs and field dwarfs with identical spectral type. The comparison of its Ks-band photometry with evolutionary tracks allows us to derive a mass, effective temperature, and surface gravity of 62+-20 MJup, Teff = 2330+-200 K, and log g = 5.1+-0.2, respectively. The small mass ratio of the binary, -0.03, and its long orbital period, -5000 yr, makes HR 6037 a rare and uncommon binary system.
@article{arxiv.1009.4650,
title = {A brown dwarf companion to the intermediate-mass star HR6037},
author = {N. Huelamo and D. E. A. Nuernberger and V. D. Ivanov and G. Chauvin and G. Carraro and M. F. Sterzik and C. H. F. Melo and M. Bonnefoy and M. Hartung and X. Haubois and C. Foellmi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.4650},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
(5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters)