2013/10/22 by John E. Gizis, Adam J. Burgasser, E. Berger +6 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Effective temperature #Flare #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Light curve #Physics #Rotation period #Stars #Starspot #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Variable star #White dwarf #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/779/2/172
accepted to ApJ
arxiv created 2013/10/22 · openalex publication_date 2013/12/04 · arxiv updated 2015/06/17 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on the results of 15 months of monitoring the nearby field L1 dwarf WISEP J190648.47+401106.8 (W1906+40) with the Kepler mission. Supporting observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and Gemini North Telescope reveal that the L dwarf is magnetically active, with quiescent radio and variable Hα emission. A preliminary trigonometric parallax shows that W1906+40 is at a distance of pc, and all observations are consistent with W1906+40 being an old disk star just above the hydrogen-burning limit. The star shows photometric variability with a period of 8.9 hr and an amplitude of 1.5%, with a consistent phase throughout the year. We infer a radius of 0.92 ± 0.07 R J and sin i > 0.57 from the observed period, luminosity (10 −3.67 ± 0.03 L ☉ ), effective temperature (2300 ± 75 K), and v sin i (11.2 ± 2.2 km s −1 ). The light curve may be modeled with a single large, high latitude dark spot. Unlike many L-type brown dwarfs, there is no evidence of other variations at the ≳ 2% level, either non-periodic or transient periodic, that mask the underlying rotation period. We suggest that the long-lived surface features may be due to starspots, but the possibility of cloud variations cannot be ruled out without further multi-wavelength observations. During the Gemini spectroscopy, we observed the most powerful flare ever seen on an L dwarf, with an estimated energy of ∼1.6 × 10 32 erg in white light emission. Using the Kepler data, we identify similar flares and estimate that white light flares with optical/ultraviolet energies of 10 31 erg or more occur on W1906+40 as often as 1–2 times per month.