L1551NE - Discovery of a Binary Companion.pdfVIP

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 0 0 3 0 8 8 v 1 7 M a r 2 0 0 0 L1551NE - Discovery of a Binary Companion G. H. Moriarty-Schieven National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 N. A’ohoku Pl., Hilo, HI 96720 (g.moriarty-schieven@) J. A. Powers University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI 96720 (ja powers@) H. M. Butner Submillimeter Telescope Observatory, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (hbutner@) P. G. Wannier Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 169-506, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109 (peter.wannier@) and Jocelyn Keene California Institute of Technology, MS 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 (jkeene@) ABSTRACT L1551NE is a very young (class 0 or I) low-mass protostar located close to the well-studied L1551 IRS5. We present here evidence, from 1.3mm contin- uum interferometric observations at ～1” resolution, for a binary companion to L1551NE. The companion, whose 1.3mm flux density is ～1/3 that of the pri- mary component, is located 1.43” (～230 A.U. at 160pc) to the southeast. The millimeterwave emission from the primary component may have been just barely resolved, with deconvolved size ～0.82”x0.70” (～131x112 A.U.). The companion emission was unresolved (100 A.U.). The pair is embedded within a flattened circum-binary envelope of size ～5.4” × 2.3” (～ 860 × 370 A.U.). The masses of the three components (i.e. from the cicumstellar material of the primary star and its companion, and the envelope) are approximately 0.044, 0.014 and 0.023 M⊙ respectively. Subject headings: ISM: individual: L1551NE — stars: formation — stars: binary – 2 – 1. Introduction Young T Tauri stars in Taurus have been found to have a high incidence of multiplicity, with the fraction of close (～100A.U.) companions found to be 0.40 ± 0.08 (Ghez et al. 1993; Leinert et al. 1993; Simon et al. 1995; Patience et al. 1998), using speckle and occultation techniques. Similar surveys of the Hyades cluster found a smaller fraction of 0.30