DISCOVERY OF AN UNUSUALLY BLUE L DWARF WITHIN 10 pc OF THE SUN
We report the discovery of an unusually blue L5 dwarf within 10 pc of the Sun from a search of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectra. A spectrophotometric distance estimate of 8.0±1.6 pc places SDSS J141624.08+134826.7 among the six closest known L dwarfs. SDSS 1416+13 was overlooked in infrared...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Astronomical Society
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55991 |
| Summary: | We report the discovery of an unusually blue L5 dwarf within 10 pc of the Sun from a search of Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) spectra. A spectrophotometric distance estimate of 8.0±1.6 pc places SDSS J141624.08+134826.7
among the six closest known L dwarfs. SDSS 1416+13 was overlooked in infrared color-based searches because
of its unusually blue J − KS color, which also identifies it as the nearest member of the blue L dwarf subclass. We present additional infrared and optical spectroscopy from the IRTF/SpeX and Magellan/MagE spectrographs and
determine UVW motions that indicate thin disk kinematics. The inclusion of SDSS 1416+13 in the 20 pc sample
of L dwarfs increases the number of L5 dwarfs by 20% suggesting that the L dwarf luminosity function may be far
from complete. |
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