Related papers: Probing the Substellar Regime with SIRTF
Mid-infrared data, including Spitzer warm-IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] photometry, is critical for understanding the cold population of brown dwarfs now being found, objects which have more in common with planets than stars. As effective…
The primary goal of the Ariel space telescope is to conduct the biggest spectroscopic survey of transiting exoplanets to characterize their atmospheres and weather. We propose to extend the Ariel survey to another domain of alien…
We explore the spectral and atmospheric properties of brown dwarfs cooler than the latest known T dwarfs. Our focus is on the yet-to-be-discovered free-floating brown dwarfs in the \teff range from $\sim$800 K to $\sim$130 K and with masses…
We present Spitzer IRAC photometry of twelve very late-type T dwarfs; nine have [3.6], [4.5], [5.8] and [8.0] photometry and three have [3.6] and [4.5] photometry only. We investigate trends with type and color for the planning and…
The coolest known brown dwarfs are our best analogs to extrasolar gas-giant planets. The prolific detections of such cold substellar objects in the past two years has spurred intensive followup, but the lack of accurate distances is a key…
This paper presents a sensitive and comprehensive IRAC 3-8 $\mu$m photometric survey of white dwarfs for companions in the planetary mass regime with temperatures cooler than the known T dwarfs. The search focuses on descendents of…
Submillimeter and near-infrared images of cool dusty debris disks and rings suggest the existence of unseen planets. At dusty but non-imaged stars, semi-major axes of associated planets can be estimated from the dust temperature. For some…
The spectra of brown dwarfs are key to exploring the chemistry and physics that take place in their atmospheres. Late-T dwarf spectra are particularly diagnostic due to their relatively cloud-free atmospheres and deep molecular bands. With…
We report the results of an infrared Doppler survey designed to detect brown dwarf and giant planetary companions to a magnitude-limited sample of ultracool dwarfs. Using the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck II telescope, we obtained…
The Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is a space-borne, cryogenically-cooled infrared observatory capable of studying objects ranging from our Solar System to the distant reaches of the Universe. SIRTF is the final element in NASA's…
The number of low-mass brown dwarfs and even free floating planetary mass objects in young nearby star-forming regions and associations is continuously increasing, offering the possibility to study the low-mass end of the IMF in greater…
IRAC excels at detecting distant objects. Due to a combination of the shapes of the spectral energy distributions of galaxies and the low background achieved from space, IRAC reaches greater depth in comparable exposure time at 3.6 and 4.5…
With a uniform VLT SINFONI data set of nine targets, we have developed an empirical grid of J,H,K spectra of the atmospheres of objects estimated to have very low substellar masses of \sim5-20 MJup and young ages of \sim1-50 Myr. Most of…
Extrasolar planet searches targeting very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are hampered by intrinsic or instrumental limitations. Time series of astrometric measurements with precisions better than one milli-arcsecond can yield new evidence…
The SIRTF Nearby Galaxy Survey is a comprehensive infrared imaging and spectroscopic survey of 75 nearby galaxies. Its primary goal is to characterize the infrared emission of galaxies and their principal infrared-emitting components,…
We report the results of mid-IR observations with VISIR at the VLT of 10 ultracool dwarfs members of the nearby Upper Scorpius OB association in four filters ranging between 8.59 (PAH1) to 12.8 $\mu$m (Ne II), and one brown dwarf with…
Over the past decades, direct imaging has confirmed the existence of substellar companions (exoplanets or brown dwarfs) on wide orbits (>10 au) from their host stars. To understand their formation and evolution mechanisms, we have initiated…
We report the complete photometric results from our Herschel study which is the first comprehensive program to search for far-infrared emission from cold dust around young brown dwarfs. We surveyed 50 fields containing 51 known or suspected…
Crucial steps in the formation of stars and planets can be studied only at mid-infrared to far-infrared wavelengths, where SIRTF provides an unprecedented improvement in sensitivity. We will use all three SIRTF instruments (IRAC, MIPS, and…
We propose to use Kepler in 2-wheel mode to conduct a detailed search for Earth-sized planets orbiting ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs (spectral types from M7 to L3). This population of objects presents several advantages for exoplanet…