K. L. Luhman et al 2005 ApJ 635 L93 doi:10.1086/498868
Discovery of a Planetary-Mass Brown Dwarf with a Circumstellar Disk
FREEK. L. Luhman1, Lucía Adame2, Paola D'Alessio3, Nuria Calvet4, Lee Hartmann4, S. T. Megeath5 and G. G. Fazio5
Show affiliationsUsing the Hubble Space Telescope, the 4 m Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have performed deep imaging from 0.8 to 8 μm of the southern subcluster in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region. In these data, we have discovered an object, Cha 110913-773444, whose colors and magnitudes are indicative of a very low mass brown dwarf with a circumstellar disk. In a near-infrared spectrum of this source obtained with the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph, the presence of strong steam absorption confirms its late-type nature (
M9.5) while the shapes of the H- and K-band continua and the strengths of the Na I and K I lines demonstrate that it is a young, pre-main-sequence object rather than a field dwarf. A comparison of the bolometric luminosity of Cha 110913-773444 to the luminosities predicted by the evolutionary models of Chabrier & Baraffe and Burrows and coworkers indicates a mass of 8
MJ, placing it fully within the mass range observed for extrasolar planetary companions (M 
15MJ). The spectral energy distribution of this object exhibits mid-infrared excess emission at λ > 5 μm, which we have successfully modeled in terms of an irradiated viscous accretion disk with 
10-12 M
yr-1. Cha 110913-773444 is now the least massive brown dwarf observed to have a circumstellar disk, and indeed is one of the least massive free-floating objects found to date. These results demonstrate that the raw materials for planet formation exist around free-floating planetary-mass bodies.
- Subject headings
accretion, accretion disks; planetary systems: protoplanetary disks; stars: formation; stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs; stars: pre-main sequence
- Dates
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Issue 1 (2005 December 10)
Received 2005 September 23, accepted for publication 2005 October 17
Published 2005 November 29
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Discovery of a Planetary-Mass Brown Dwarf with a Circumstellar Disk
K. L. Luhman et al 2005 ApJ 635 L93
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