| Issue |
EPJ Web of Conferences
Volume 16, 2011
Research, Science and Technology of Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets: Proceedings of an International Conference held in Shangai on Occasion of a Total Eclipse of the Sun
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|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 04005 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Brown Dwarf and Planet Characterization | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20111604005 | |
| Published online | 18 July 2011 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20111604005
Deriving the true mass of an unresolved Brown Dwarf companion to an M-Dwarf with AO aided astrometry*
Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
a e-mail: meyer@mpia.de
From radial velocity (RV) detections alone one does not get all orbital parameters needed to derive the true mass of a non-transiting, unresolved substellar companion to a star. Additional astrometric measurements are needed to calculate the inclination and the longitude of the ascending node. Until today only few true substellar companion masses have been determined by this method with the HST fine guidance sensor [1, 2]. We aim to derive the true mass of a brown dwarf candidate companion to an early M 2.5V dwarf with groundbased high-resolution astrometry aided by adaptive optics. We found this unique brown dwarf desert object, whose distance to the host star is only 0.42 AU, in our UVES precision RV survey of M dwarfs, inferring a minimum companion mass of 27 Jupiter masses [3]. Combining the data with HIPPARCOS astrometry, we found a probability of only 2.9% that the companion is stellar. We therefore observed the host star together with a reference star within a monitoring program with VLT/NACO to derive the true mass of the companion and establish its nature (brown dwarf vs. star). Simultaneous observations of a reference field in a globular cluster are performed to determine the stability of the adaptive optics (AO) plus detector system and check its suitability for such high-precision astrometric measurements over several epochs which are needed to find and analyse extrasolar planet systems.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2011
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