2007/09/30 by Dagny L. Looper, Adam J. Burgasser, J. Davy Kirkpatrick +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/523812
published as 2007ApJ...669L..97L · 8 pages - emulateapj style, 2 figures, 3 tables. Accepted to ApJL. Fixed typos, added reference, added footnote
openalex publication_date 2007/10/12 · arxiv created 2007/10/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We report the discovery of a fifth candidate substellar system in the ~5-10 Myr TW Hydrae association: DENIS J124514.1-442907. This object has a NIR spectrum remarkably similar to that of 2MASS J1139511-315921, a known TW Hydrae brown dwarf, with low surface gravity features such as a triangular-shaped H band, deep H 2 O absorption, weak alkali lines, and weak hydride bands. We find an optical spectral type of M9.5 and estimate a mass of ≲24 M Jup , assuming an age of ~5-10 Myr. While the measured proper motion for DENIS J124514.1-442907 is inconclusive as a test for membership, its position in the sky is coincident with the TW Hydrae association. A more accurate proper-motion measurement, higher resolution spectroscopy for radial velocity, and a parallax measurement are needed to derive the true space motion and to confirm its membership.