Publication Details

AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS

SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH

earth and planetary sciences

2MASS J0516288+260738: Discovery of the first eclipsing late K + Brown dwarf binary system?

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 410, No. 2, Year 2003

We report the discovery of a new eclipsing system less than one arcminute south of the pulsating DB white dwarf KUV 05134+2605. The object could be identified with the point source 2MASSJ0516288+260738 published by the Two Micron All Sky Survey. We present and discuss the first light curves as well as some additional colour and spectral information. The eclipse period of the system is 1.29 d, and, assuming this to be identical to the orbital period, the best light curve solution yields a mass ratio of m2/m1 = 0.11, a radius ratio of r2/r1 ≈ 1 and an inclination of 74°. The spectral analysis results in a Teff = 4200 K for the primary. On this basis, we suggest that the new system probably consists of a late K + Brown dwarf (which would imply a system considerably younger than ≈0.01 Gyr to have r2/r1 ≈ 1), and outline possible future observations.

Statistics
Citations: 25
Authors: 25
Affiliations: 14
Identifiers
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative