High-Contrast 3.8 Micron Imaging Of The Brown Dwarf/Planet-Mass Companion to GJ 758

TL;DR

This study reports high-contrast 3.8 micron imaging of the GJ 758 system, confirming a brown dwarf companion with specific temperature, mass, and orbital characteristics, and discusses its implications for formation theories.

Contribution

First high-contrast L' band imaging detection of GJ 758B, providing detailed physical and orbital parameters, and analyzing its nature relative to planetary and stellar formation.

Findings

GJ 758B has a temperature around 560 K.

GJ 758B's mass is estimated between 10-40 Jupiter masses.

GJ 758B likely has a highly eccentric orbit with a semimajor axis of about 44 AU.

Abstract

We present L' band (3.8 $\mu m$) MMT/Clio high-contrast imaging data for the nearby star GJ 758, which was recently reported by Thalmann et al. (2009) to have one -- possibly two-- faint comoving companions (GJ 758B and ``C", respectively). GJ 758B is detected in two distinct datasets. Additionally, we report a \textit{possible} detection of the object identified by Thalmann et al as ``GJ 758C" in our more sensitive dataset, though it is likely a residual speckle. However, if it is the same object as that reported by Thalmann et al. it cannot be a companion in a bound orbit. GJ 758B has a H-L' color redder than nearly all known L--T8 dwarfs. Based on comparisons with the COND evolutionary models, GJ 758B has T$_{e}$ $\sim$ 560 K$^{^{+150 K}_{-90K}}$ and a mass ranging from $\sim$ 10--20 M$_{J}$ if it is $\sim$ 1 Gyr old to $\sim$ 25--40 M$_{J}$ if it is 8.7 Gyr old. GJ 758B is likely in a highly eccentric orbit, e $\sim$ 0.73$^{^{+0.12}_{-0.21}}$, with a semimajor axis of $\sim$ 44 AU$^{^{+32 AU}_{-14 AU}}$. Though GJ 758B is sometimes discussed within the context of exoplanet direct imaging, its mass is likely greater than the deuterium-burning limit and its formation may resemble that of binary stars rather than that of jovian-mass planets.