Examinando por Autor "Mendez, R.A."

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    Spectrophotometric characterization of high proper motion sources from WISE
    (Oxford University Press, 2015-12) Beamín, J.C.; Ivanov, V.D.; Minniti, D.; Smart, R.L.; Muzić, K.; Mendez, R.A.; Beletsky, Y.; Bayo, A.; Gromadzki, M.; Kurtev, R.
    The census of the solar neighbourhood is almost complete for stars and becoming more complete in the brown dwarf regime. Spectroscopic, photometric and kinematic characterization of nearby objects helps us to understand the local mass function, the binary fraction, and provides new targets for sensitive planet searches. We aim to derive spectral types and spectrophotometric distances of a sample of new high proper motion sources found with the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) satellite, and obtain parallaxes for those objects that fall within the area observed by the Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea survey (VVV). We used low-resolution spectroscopy and template fitting to derive spectral types, multiwavelength photometry to characterize the companion candidates and obtain photometric distances. Multi-epoch imaging from the VVV survey was used to measure the parallaxes and proper motions for three sources. We confirm a new T2 brown dwarf within ∼15 pc. We derived optical spectral types for 24 sources, mostly M dwarfs within 50 pc. We addressed the wide binary nature of 16 objects found by the WISE mission and previously known high proper motion sources. Six of these are probably members of wide binaries, two of those are new, and present evidence against the physical binary nature of two candidate binary stars found in the literature, and eight that we selected as possible binary systems. We discuss a likely microlensing event produced by a nearby low-mass star and a galaxy, that is to occur in the following five years
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    Temperature constraints on the coldest brown dwarf known: WISE 0855-0714
    (EDP Sciences, 2014-10) Beamín, J.C.; Ivanov, V.D.; Bayo, A.; Mužić, K.; Boffin, H.M.J.; Allard, F.; Homeier, D.; Minniti, D.; Gromadzki, M.; Kurtev, R.; Lodieu, N.; Martin, E.L.; Mendez, R.A.
    Context. Nearby isolated planetary mass objects are beginning to be discovered, but their individual properties are poorly constrained because their low surface temperatures and strong molecular self-absorption make them extremely faint. Aims. We aimed to detect the near-infrared emission of the coldest brown dwarf (BD) found so far, WISE0855-0714, located ~2.2 pc away, and to improve its temperature estimate (Teff = 225−260 K) from a comparison with state-of-the-art models of BD atmospheres. Methods. We observed the field containing WISE0855-0714 with HAWK-I at the VLT in the Y band. For BDs with Teff< 500 K theoretical models predict strong signal (or rather less molecular absorption) in this band. Results. WISE0855-0714 was not detected in our Y-band images, thus placing an upper limit on its brightness to Y> 24.4 mag at 3σ level, leading to Y − [ 4.5 ] > 10.5. Combining this limit with previous detections and upper limits at other wavelengths, WISE0855-0714 is confirmed as the reddest BD detected, further supporting its status as the coldest known brown dwarf. We applied spectral energy distribution fitting with collections of models from two independent groups for extremely cool BD atmospheres leading to an effective temperature of Teff< 250 K,