A SEARCH FOR A DISTANT COMPANION TO THE SUN WITH THEWIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER

2013/12/24 by K. L. Luhman · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Astro and Planetary Science #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae

paper · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/781/1/4

openalex publication_date 2013/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

I have used multi-epoch astrometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to perform a search for a distant companion to the Sun via its parallactic motion. I have not found an object of this kind down to W 2 = 14.5. This limit corresponds to analogs of Saturn and Jupiter at 28,000 and 82,000 AU, respectively, according to models of the Jovian planets by Fortney and coworkers. Models of brown dwarfs by Burrows and coworkers predict fainter fluxes at a given mass for the age of the solar system, producing a closer distance limit of 26,000 AU for a Jupiter-mass brown dwarf. These constraints exclude most combinations of mass and separation at which a solar companion has been suggested to exist by various studies over the years.

Citations

• Further Defining Spectral Type "Y" and Exploring the Low-mass End of the Field Brown Dwarf Mass Function
• Discovery of the candidate Kuiper belt object 1992 QB1
• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• The Deep Ecliptic Survey: A Search for Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs. II. Dynamical Classification, the Kuiper Belt Plane, and the Core Population
• The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)

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• Oort cloud [wikipedia]
• Planets beyond Neptune [wikipedia]