CWISE J014611.20-050850.0AB: The Widest Known Brown Dwarf Binary in the Field

February 2022 • 2022ApJ...926L..12S

Authors • Softich, Emma • Schneider, Adam C. • Patience, Jennifer • Burgasser, Adam J. • Shkolnik, Evgenya • Faherty, Jacqueline K. • Caselden, Dan • Meisner, Aaron M. • Kirkpatrick, J. Davy • Kuchner, Marc J. • Gagné, Jonathan • Gagliuffi, Daniella Bardalez • Cushing, Michael C. • Casewell, Sarah L. • Aganze, Christian • Hsu, Chih-Chun • Andersen, Nikolaj Stevnbak • Kiwy, Frank • Thévenot, Melina • Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Collaboration

Abstract • While stars are often found in binary systems, brown dwarf binaries are much rarer. Brown dwarf-brown dwarf pairs are typically difficult to resolve because they often have very small separations. Using brown dwarfs discovered with data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) via the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project, we inspected other, higher-resolution, sky surveys for overlooked cold companions. During this process, we discovered the brown dwarf binary system CWISE J0146-0508AB, which we find has a very small chance alignment probability based on the similar proper motions of the components of the system. Using follow-up near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck/NIRES, we determined component spectral types of L4 and L8 (blue), making CWISE J0146-0508AB one of only a few benchmark systems with a blue L dwarf. At an estimated distance of ~40 pc, CWISE J0146-0508AB has a projected separation of ~129 au, making it the widest-separation brown dwarf pair found to date. We find that such a wide separation for a brown dwarf binary may imply formation in a low-density star-forming region.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2022ApJ...926L..12S
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac51d8/pdf
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/2202.02315
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2022/S/2022ApJ...926L..12S.html
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.3847%2F2041-8213%2Fac51d8