A new population of brown dwarfs |
| |
| Authors: | M. R. S. Hawkins,C. Ducourant,H. R. A. Jones,& M. Rapaport |
| |
| Affiliation: | Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ,;Bordeaux Observatory, BP 89, 33270 Floirac, France,;Astronomy Group, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF,;Institute of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Mitaka 181, Japan |
| |
| Abstract: | In this paper we report the first results from a survey for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, based on a photographic stack of around 100 Schmidt plates. This survey extends photographic searches by about 2 mag, and covers an area of 25 deg2. Some 30 faint objects with large R − I colours were selected for further study, and were found to have very strong molecular absorption in their spectra, but only moderately red infrared colours. Five of these stars were selected for a parallax programme; three of these were found to be at a distance of around 45 pc, implying a very low luminosity. On the basis of their luminosity alone it is clear that these stars are field brown dwarfs, and we discuss their likely evolutionary status in the context of current models of low-mass stellar evolution. |
| |
| Keywords: | surveys stars: evolution stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs. |
|
|
