We report the detection of radio emission and orbital motion from the nearby star-brown dwarf binary WISE J072003.20-084651.2AB. Radio observations across the 4.5-6.5 GHz band with the Very Large Array identify at the position of the system quiescent emission with a flux density of 15±3 μJy, and a highly-polarized radio source that underwent a 2-3 min burst with peak flux density 300±90 μJy. The latter emission is likely a low-level magnetic flare similar to optical flares previously observed for this source. No outbursts were detected in separate narrow-band Hα monitoring observations. We report new high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations that confirm the presence of a co-moving T5.5 secondary and provide the first indications of three-dimensional orbital motion. We used these data to revise our estimates for the orbital period (4.1−1.3+2.7 yr) and tightly constrain the orbital inclination to be nearly edge-on (93.6\deg−1.4deg+1.6deg), although robust measures of the component and system masses will require further monitoring. The inferred orbital motion does not change the high likelihood that this radio-emitting very low-mass binary made a close pass to the Sun in the past 100 kyr.
@article{arxiv.1508.06332,
title = {Radio Emission and Orbital Motion from the Close-Encounter Star-Brown Dwarf Binary WISE J072003.20-084651.2},
author = {Adam J. Burgasser and Carl Melis and Jacob Todd and Christopher R. Gelino and Gregg Hallinan and Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06332},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication to AJ