The 2MASS Wide-Field T Dwarf Search. V. Discovery of a T Dwarf via Methane Imaging

Ellis, S. C.; Tinney, C. G.; Burgasser, Adam J.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; McElwain, Michael W.

The 2MASS Wide-Field T Dwarf Search. V. Discovery of a T Dwarf via Methane Imaging

Authors

Description

We present the discovery of a T dwarf, 2M2151-4853, via differential imaging through methane filters. The filters are designed to highlight the strong absorption in the H band, due to methane found in the atmospheres of T dwarfs, and provide a very efficient means of searching for them. Subsequent J and H band spectroscopy confirms 2M2151-4853 as a T dwarf of type T4.5. It has an estimated spectrophotometric distance of 18 +/- 3 pc, and an estimated tangential velocity of v=50 +/- 10 km/s.
Accepted for publication in AJ. 8 pages, 4 figures