New Extinction and Mass Estimates of the Low-mass Companion 1RXS 1609 B with the Magellan AO System: Evidence of an Inclined Dust Disk [EPA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05816


We used the Magellan adaptive optics system to image the 11 Myr substellar companion 1RXS 1609 B at the bluest wavelengths to date (z’ and Ys). Comparison with synthetic spectra yields a higher temperature than previous studies of $T_\mathrm{eff}=2000\pm100\mathrm{K}$ and significant dust extinction of $A_V=4.5^{+0.5}_{-0.7}$ mag. Mass estimates based on the DUSTY tracks gives 0.012-0.015 Msun, making the companion likely a low-mass brown dwarf surrounded by a dusty disk. Our study suggests that 1RXS 1609 B is one of the 25% of Upper Scorpius low-mass members harboring disks, and it may have formed like a star and not a planet out at 320 AU.

Read this paper on arXiv…

Y. Wu, L. Close, J. Males, et. al.
Mon, 22 Jun 15
10/41

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted to ApJL