English

CFBDSIR 2149-0403: young isolated planetary-mass object or high-metallicity low-mass brown dwarf??

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2017-06-21 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Abstract

We conducted a multi-wavelength, multi-instrument observational characterisation of the candidate free-floating planet CFBDSIR~J214947.2-040308.9, a late T-dwarf with possible low-gravity features, in order to constrain its physical properties. We analyzed 9 hours of X-Shooter spectroscopy with signal detectable from 0.8--2.3μ\mum, as well as additional photometry in the mid-infrared using the Spitzer Space Telescope. Combined with a VLT/HAWK-I astrometric parallax, this enabled a full characterisation of the absolute flux from the visible to 5μ\mum, encompassing more than 90\% of the expected energy emitted by such a cool late T-type object. Our analysis of the spectrum also provided the radial velocity and therefore the determination of its full 3-D kinematics. While our new spectrum confirms the low gravity and/or high metallicity of CFBDSIR2149, the parallax and kinematics safely rule out membership to any known young moving group, including AB~Doradus. We use the equivalent width of the KI doublet at 1.25μ\mum as a promising tool to discriminate the effects of low-gravity from the effects of high-metallicity on the emission spectra of cool atmospheres. In the case of CFBDSIR2149, the observed KI doublet clearly favours the low-gravity solution. CFBDSIR2149 is therefore a peculiar late-T dwarf that is probably a young, planetary-mass object (2--13Mjup, <<500Myr) possibly similar to the exoplanet 51Erib, or perhaps a 2--40Mjup brown dwarf with super-solar metallicity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1703.00843,
  title  = {CFBDSIR 2149-0403: young isolated planetary-mass object or high-metallicity low-mass brown dwarf??},
  author = {P. Delorme and T. Dupuy and J. Gagné and C. Reylé and T. Forveille and Michael C. Liu and E. Artigau and L. Albert and X. Delfosse and F. Allard and D. Homeier and L. Malo and C. Morley and M. E. Naud and M. Bonnefoy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.00843},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Accepted in A&A