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Title:
Kelu-1: A Free-floating Brown Dwarf in the Solar Neighborhood
Authors:
Ruiz, Maria Teresa; Leggett, S. K.; Allard, France
Publication:
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.491, p.L107 (ApJL Homepage)
Publication Date:
12/1997
Origin:
APJ
ApJ Keywords:
STARS: LOW-MASS, STARS: FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS, STARS: ATMOSPHERES
DOI:
10.1086/311070
Bibliographic Code:
1997ApJ...491L.107R

Abstract

We present the discovery of a field brown dwarf, Kelu-1. The object has a peculiar optical spectrum that, in spite of its extremely red color, shows no sign of the TiO and VO absorption bands typical of cool, low-mass stars. The optical spectrum does show the Li I lambda 6708 absorption line and H alpha in emission. The infrared spectrum of Kelu-1 has strong H2O absorption and also shows the effect of pressure-induced H2 opacity. Kelu-1 was discovered through its large proper motion of 0."35 yr-1, with position angle theta =265^° . A distance of ~10 pc is estimated astrometrically for the object, which implies absolute magnitudes of MV~22 and MK~12 . Comparison of the observed energy distribution of Kelu-1 to synthetic spectra generated by atmosphere models of Allard et al., and structural and evolutionary models of Chabrier & Baraffe, implies that the object has T_{{eff}}=1900+/-100 K and a mass below 0.075 M/Msolar .
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