IRAS 16253-2429: the First Proto-Brown Dwarf Binary Candidate Identified through Dynamics of Jets

TL;DR

This study identifies IRAS 16253-2429 as the first proto-brown dwarf binary candidate through jet dynamics, providing insights into brown dwarf formation mechanisms in isolated environments.

Contribution

It presents the first evidence of a proto-brown dwarf binary candidate inferred from jet precession and orbital motion analysis.

Findings

Detection of two protostellar jets indicating a proto-binary system

Identification of jet precession consistent with binary orbital motion

Estimation of the binary mass as approximately 0.032 solar masses

Abstract

The formation mechanism of brown dwarfs (BDs) is one of the long-standing problems in star formation because the typical Jeans mass in molecular clouds is too large to form these substellar objects. To answer this question, it is crucial to study a BD at the embedded phase. IRAS 16253-2429 is classified as a very low luminosity object (VeLLO) with internal luminosity 0.1 Lsun. VeLLOs are believed to be very low-mass protostars or even proto-BDs. We observed the jet/outflow driven by IRAS 16253-2429 in CO (2-1), (6-5), and (7-6) using the IRAM 30 m and APEX telescopes and the SMA in order to study its dynamical features and physical properties. Our SMA map reveals two protostellar jets, indicating the existence of a proto-binary system as implied by the precessing jet detected in H2 emission. We detect a wiggling pattern in the position-velocity diagrams along the jet axes, which is likely due to the binary orbital motion. Based on this, we derive the current mass of the binary as ~0.032 Msun. Given the low envelope mass, IRAS 16253-2429 will form a binary that probably consist of one or two BDs. Furthermore, we found that the outflow force as well as the mass accretion rate are very low based on the multi-transition CO observations, which suggests that the final masses of the binary components are at the stellar/substellar boundary. Since IRAS 16253 is located in an isolated environment, we suggest that BDs can form through fragmentation and collapse like low-mass stars.