BASS-Ultracool : A Survey for Isolated Analogs of Methane Exoplanets
Abstract
I will present BASS-Ultracool, a new survey to identify isolated cold, late L and T-type members of young moving groups. These objects have masses below 10 MJup and physical properties similar to those of exoplanets identified with the direct-imaging method. The discovery of such isolated planetary-mass objects will allow us to characterize their atmospheres with unprecedented signal-to-noise and spectroscopic resolution due to the absence of a host star. They will serve as benchmarks to understand cold exoplanets such as the recently discovered 51 Eri b.I will also present how the prototype version of the BASS-Ultracool survey has already identified the first isolated T-type member of a nearby moving group SDSS J1110+0116, which is a young 10-12 MJup T5.5 member of the ~150 Myr-old AB Doradus moving group. This object is an isolated and slightly cooler version of the previously identified T3.5 AB Doradus member GU Psc b.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Extreme Solar Systems Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015ESS.....310419G