Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 720, Issue 1, Pages L82-L87Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/720/1/L82
Keywords
brown dwarfs; instrumentation: adaptive optics; planetary systems; planets and satellites: detection; stars: pre-main sequence
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Funding
- Space Telescope Science Institute [HST-HF-01204.01-A]
- NASA [NAS 5-26555]
- NSF [AST-0713881, AST-0709484]
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/G004331/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/G004331/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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We report the discovery of a tight substellar companion to the young solar analog PZ Tel, a member of the beta Pic moving group observed with high-contrast adaptive optics imaging as part of the Gemini Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager Planet-Finding Campaign. The companion was detected at a projected separation of 16.4 +/- 1.0 AU (0.'' 33 +/- 0.'' 01) in 2009 April. Second-epoch observations in 2010 May demonstrate that the companion is physically associated and shows significant orbital motion. Monte Carlo modeling constrains the orbit of PZ Tel B to eccentricities >0.6. The near-IR colors of PZ Tel B indicate a spectral type of M7 +/- 2 and thus this object will be a new benchmark companion for studies of ultracool, low-gravity photospheres. Adopting an age of 12(-4)(+8) Myr for the system, we estimate a mass of 36 +/- 6 M-Jup based on the Lyon/DUSTY evolutionary models. PZ Tel B is one of the few young substellar companions directly imaged at orbital separations similar to those of giant planets in our own solar system. Additionally, the primary star PZ Tel A shows a 70 mu m emission excess, evidence for a significant quantity of circumstellar dust that has not been disrupted by the orbital motion of the companion.
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