USco1621 B and USco1556 B: Two wide companions at the deuterium-burning mass limit in Upper Scorpius

Chinchilla, Patricia; Béjar, Víctor J. S.; Lodieu, Nicolas; Gauza, Bartosz; Zapatero Osorio, Maria Rosa; Rebolo, Rafael; Garrido, Antonio Pérez; Alvarez, Carlos; Manjavacas, Elena
Referencia bibliográfica

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Fecha de publicación:
1
2020
Número de autores
9
Número de autores del IAC
4
Número de citas
11
Número de citas referidas
10
Descripción

Aims: Our objective is to identify analogues of gas giant planets, but located as companions at wide separations of very young stars. The main purpose is to characterise the binarity frequency and the properties of these substellar objects, and to elucidate their early evolutionary stages.
Methods: To identify these objects, we cross correlated the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Hemisphere Survey and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Infrared Deep Sky Survey Galactic Clusters Survey catalogues to search for common proper motion companions to 1195 already known members of Upper Scorpius (USco; age ~5-10 Myr, distance ~145 pc). We present the discovery and spectroscopic characterisation of two very wide substellar companions of two early-M stars in Upper Scorpius: USco1621 B and USco1556 B. We obtained optical and near-infrared low-resolution spectroscopy of the candidates to characterise their spectral energy distribution and confirm their youth and membership to the association. We also acquired adaptive optics images of the primaries and secondaries to search for signs of binarity and close companions.
Results: By comparison with field dwarfs and other young members of USco, we determined a spectral type of M8.5 in the optical for both companions, along with L0 and L0.5 in the near-infrared for USco1621 B and USco1556 B, respectively. The spectra of the two companions show evident markers of youth, such as weak alkaline Na I and K I lines, along with the triangular shape of the H-band. The comparison with theoretical evolutionary models gives estimated masses of 0.015 ± 0.002 and 0.014 ± 0.002 M☉, with temperatures of 2270 ± 90 and 2240 ± 100 K, respectively. The physical separations between the components of both systems are 2880 ± 20 and 3500 ± 40 AU for USco1621 and USco1556 systems, respectively. We did not find any additional close companion in the adaptive optics images. The probability that the two secondaries are physically bound to their respective primaries, and not chance alignments of USco members, is 86%, and the probability that none of them are physically related is 1.0%.
Proyectos relacionados
Descubrimiento de un sistema de supertierras orbitando la estrella HD 176986 con aproximadamente 5.7 and 9.2 masas de la Tierra
Estrellas de Baja Masa, Enanas Marrones y Planetas
Se investigan los procesos que conducen a la formación de estrellas de baja masa, enanas marrones y exoplanetas y caracterizar las propiedades físicas de estos astros en varias etapas evolutivas. Las estrellas de muy baja masa y las enanas marrones son probablemente los objetos más numerosos de nuestra Galaxia, pero no por ello están
Rafael
Rebolo López
Image withthe projects' name
Exoplanetas y Astrobiología
La búsqueda de vida en el Universo se ha visto impulsada por los recientes descubrimientos de planetas alrededor de otras estrellas (los llamados exoplanetas), convirtiéndose en uno de los campos más activos dentro de la Astrofísica moderna. En los últimos años los descubrimientos cada vez más numerosos de nuevos exoplanetas y los últimos avances
Enric
Pallé Bago