Discovery of a Nearby Young Brown Dwarf Disk

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf with a circumstellar disk, providing insights into brown dwarf formation and early evolution, with detailed spectral and disk modeling confirming its youth and properties.

Contribution

It presents the first identification of a young brown dwarf with a disk at 102 pc, including detailed spectral and disk modeling, and establishes its association with the $ m extit{ε}$~Cha group.

Findings

The brown dwarf is approximately 3.7 Myr old.

It hosts a Class II type warm disk with a temperature of 521 K.

The object has a mass between 42-58 Jupiter masses.

Abstract

We report the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf with a disk at 102 pc from the Sun, WISEA~J120037.79-784508.3 (W1200-7845), via the Disk Detective citizen science project. We establish that W1200-7845 is located in the 3.7$\substack{+4.6 \\ -1.4}$ Myr-old $\varepsilon$~Cha association. Its spectral energy distribution (SED) exhibits clear evidence of an infrared (IR) excess, indicative of the presence of a warm circumstellar disk. Modeling this warm disk, we find the data are best fit using a power-law description with a slope $\alpha = -0.94$, which suggests it is a young, Class II type disk. Using a single blackbody disk fit, we find $T_{eff, disk} = 521 K$ and $L_{IR}/L_{*} = 0.14$. The near-infrared spectrum of W1200-7845 matches a spectral type of M6.0$\gamma \pm 0.5$, which corresponds to a low surface gravity object, and lacks distinctive signatures of strong Pa$\beta$ or Br$\gamma$ accretion. Both our SED fitting and spectral analysis indicate the source is cool ($T_{eff} = $2784-2850 K), with a mass of 42-58 $M_{Jup}$, well within the brown dwarf regime. The proximity of this young brown dwarf disk makes the system an ideal benchmark for investigating the formation and early evolution of brown dwarfs.