Red/infrared observations of Wolf 424AB : are the components substellar ?

February 1992 • 1992A&A...254..116H

Authors • Henry, T. J. • Johnson, D. S. • McCarthy, D. W. • Kirkpatrick, J. D.

Abstract • The binary system Wolf 424 AB has been reported by Heintz (1989) to be a possible brown dwarf pair. The component masses, 0.06 and 0.05 M_sun, were determined dynamically using an orbit defined by elongated photographic images and visual observations spanning three orbital periods. We present infrared speckle interferometric, photometric, and spectroscopic data on the Wolf 424 system - specifically, the position angles measured from the speckle observations are consistently ahead of the predicted positions, indicating that the orbital parameters require revision. Because the determination that the masses are substellar depends upon the orbit, which appears to be in error, and since all other data suggests stellar masses, it is quite probable that Wolf 424 A and B are stars, not brown dwarfs.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=1992A%26A...254..116H
• GIF http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1992A%26A...254..116H
• ARTICLE http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1992A%26A...254..116H?defaultprint=YES