Infrared spectroscopy of free-floating planet candidates in Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus
Abstract
Context. A rich population of low-mass brown dwarfs and isolated planetary mass objects has been reported in the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus star-forming complex.
Aims: We investigate the membership, nature, and properties of 17 of these isolated planetary mass candidates using low-resolution near-infrared spectra.
Methods: We investigated the membership by looking for evidence of their youth using four diagnostics: the slope of the continuum between the J and Ks band, the Hcont, and the TLI-g gravity-sensitive indices. In addition, we compared the spectra to young and field (old) M and L-dwarf standards.
Results: All the targets but one are confirmed as young ultracool objects, with spectral types between L0 and L6 and masses in the range 0.004-0.013 M⊙, according to evolutionary models. The status of the last target is unclear at this point.
Conclusions: Only one possible contaminant has been identified among the 17 targets, suggesting that the contamination level of the original sample must be low (≲6%).
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- August 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/202243850
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2206.00916
- Bibcode:
- 2022A&A...664A.111B
- Keywords:
-
- brown dwarfs;
- stars: late-type;
- stars: pre-main sequence;
- planets and satellites: formation;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted on 2022 June 2. Pending language revision