Discovery of an M8.5 Dwarf With Proper Motion mu=2.38 arcsecyr.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 2 1 1 1 4 6 v 1 7 N o v 2 0 0 2 Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters Discovery of an M8.5 Dwarf With Proper Motion μ = 2.38′′ yr?1 Se?bastien Le?pine1, R. Michael Rich2,3, James D. Neill1, Adeline Caulet4, and Michael M. Shara1 ABSTRACT We report the discovery of LSR1826+3014, a very faint (V=19.36) star with a very large proper motion (μ = 2.38′′ yr?1). A low resolution red spectrum reveals that LSR1826+3014 is an ultra-cool red dwarf with spectral type M8.5 V and with a radial velocity vrad = +77±10km s ?1. LSR1826+3014 is thus the faintest red dwarf ever discovered with a proper motion larger than 2′′ yr?1. Optical and infrared photometry suggest that the star is at a distance d = 13.9± 3.5pc from the Sun, which implies it is moving relative to the local standard of rest with a total velocity of 175± 25km s?1. Numerical integration of its orbit suggests that LSR1826+3014 is on a halo-like galactic orbit. Subject headings: Stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs — Solar neighborhood — Stars: kinematics — Galaxy: halo 1. Introduction Very few stars are known to have proper motions μ 2′′ yr?1. The LHS catalog (Luyten 1979) lists only 60 systems (which include 9 resolved doubles and 2 resolved triples) with proper motions in that range, and few systems have been added since. The discovery of a 1Department of Astrophysics, Division of Physical Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, Cen- tral Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA 2Visiting Astronomer, Lick Observatory 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA 4Calypso Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona – 2 – faint μ = 2.13′′ yr?1 white dwarf (ER8=GJ3770) was reported by Ruiz et al. (1986). More recently, the candidate halo white dwarf F351-50 was discovered by Ibata et al. (2000); its proper motion is μ = 2.33′′ yr?1. Most of these extremely rare objects are very nearby stars, within 10pc of the Sun. Pr