J0219-3925B: a new L Class "Nemesis" Brown Dwarf

BANYAN. VI. Discovery of a companion at the brown dwarf/planet-mass limit to a Tucana-Horologium M dwarf

Authors:

Artigau et al

Abstract:

We report the discovery of a substellar companion to 2MASS J02192210-3925225, a young M6 γ candidate member of the Tucana-Horologium association (30 - 40 Myr). This L4 γ companion has been discovered with seeing-limited direct imaging observations; at a 4" separation (160AU) and a modest contrast ratio, it joins the very short list of young low-mass companions amenable to study without the aid of adaptive optics, enabling its characterization with a much wider suite of instruments than is possible for companions uncovered by high-contrast imaging surveys. With a model-dependent mass of 12-15MJup, it straddles the boundary between the planet and brown dwarf mass regimes. We present near-infrared spectroscopy of this companion and compare it to various similar objects uncovered in the last few years. The J0219-3925 system falls in a sparsely populated part of the host mass versus mass ratio diagram for binaries; the dearth of known similar companions may be due to observational biases in previous low-mass companion searches.