Evidence of Orbital Motion in the Binary Brown Dwarf Kelu-1AB
Abstract
We have resolved Kelu-1 into a binary system with a separation of ~290 mas using the Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system on the Keck II telescope. We have also re-analyzed a 1998 HST observation of Kelu-1 and find that the observed PSF is best fit by a binary object separated by 45 mas. Observations on multiple epochs confirm the two objects share a common proper motion and clearly demonstrate the first evidence of orbital motion. Kelu-1B is fainter than Kelu-1A by 0.39+/-0.01 magnitudes in the K' filter and 0.50+/-0.01 magnitudes in the H filter. We derive spectral types of L2+/-1 and L3.5+/-1 for Kelu-1A and B, respectively. The separation of flux into the two components rectifies Kelu-1's over-luminosity problem that has been known for quite some time. Given the available data we are able to constrain the inclination of the system to >81 degrees and the orbital period to >~40 years.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0508164,
title = {Evidence of Orbital Motion in the Binary Brown Dwarf Kelu-1AB},
author = {Christopher R. Gelino and S. R. Kulkarni and D. C. Stephens},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0508164},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
15 pages, 3 figures, Accepted to PASP. Changes include: title, author list, new data, more analysis, and new journal