The Onset of Methane in L Dwarfs
Astrophysics
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
We have detected weak absorption features produced by the strong nu(3) methane band at 3.3 microns in two L dwarfs, 2MASSW J1507476-162738 and 2MASSI J0825196+211552, classified by Kirkpatrick et al. (2000) as spectral types L5 and L7.5 respectively. These absorptions occur in objects warmer than any in which methane previously has been detected, and mark the first appearance of methane in the ultracool star-to-brown dwarf spectral sequence.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0007449,
title = {The Onset of Methane in L Dwarfs},
author = {Keith S. Noll and T. R. Geballe and S. K. Leggett and Mark S. Marley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0007449},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
12 pages, 2 figures; accepted by ApJ Letters