Discovery of a nearby young brown dwarf binary candidate

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a nearby young brown dwarf binary system with specific orbital and physical characteristics, providing a new benchmark for testing brown dwarf models.

Contribution

The discovery of a young brown dwarf binary with well-constrained parameters offers a new benchmark for atmospheric and evolutionary models.

Findings

Binary separation of 143 mas

Component spectral types M6.5 and M9.0

Estimated masses of ~30 and ~15 MJup

Abstract

In near-infrared NaCo observations of the young brown dwarf 2MASS J0041353-562112, we discovered a companion a little less than a magnitude fainter than the primary. The binary candidate has a separation of 143 mas, the spectral types are M6.5 and M9.0 for the two components. Colors and flux ratios are consistent with the components being located at the same distance minimizing the probability of the secondary being a background object. The brown dwarf is known to show Li absorption constraining the age to less than ~200 Myr, and it was suspected to show ongoing accretion, indicating an age as low as ~10 Myr. We estimate distance and orbital parameters of the binary as a function of age. For an age of 10 Myr, the distance to the system is 50 pc, the orbital period is 126 yr, and the masses of the components are ~30 and ~15 MJup. The binary brown dwarf fills a so far unoccupied region in the parameters mass and age; it is a valuable new benchmark object for brown dwarf atmospheric and evolutionary models.