Periodic photometric variability of the brown dwarf Kelu-1

Preprint

10 January 2002

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/0201162

Abstract

We have detected a strong periodicity of 1.80+/-0.05 hours in photometric observations of the brown dwarf Kelu-1. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the variation is ~1.1% (11.9+/-0.8 mmag) in a 41nm wide filter centred on 857nm and including the dust/temperature sensitive TiO & CrH bands. We have identified two plausible causes of variability: surface features rotating into- and out-of-view and so modulating the light curve at the rotation period; or, elliposidal variability caused by an orbiting companion. In the first scenario, we combine the observed vsin(i) of Kelu-1 and standard model radius to determine that the axis of rotation is inclined at 65+/-12 degrees to the line of sight.

Keywords

All Related Versions

Version 1, 2002-01-10, ArXiv
Published version: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 332 (2), 361.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: