scientific abstract no brown dwarfs have been detected yet with certainty. the definitive detection of even one brown dwarf will have a major impact on our ideas about the evolution of stars. we propose to use isocam to search for brown-dwarf companions to the nearest main-sequence stars. we will image the fields centered on these stars in two passbands in the 5-15 um spectral region which, because of the high thermal background, cannot be observed from the ground with sensitivities even close to those of which cam is capable. these observations are aimed at the detection of brown dwarfs which are as cool as several hundred kelvins, which is much cooler than brown dwarf candidates detectable from the ground in the low-thermal-background 1-3 um spectral region. we also propose a variety of observations with cam and phot of brown- dwarf candidates observed previously from the ground. observation summary we propose to use isocam to search for brown dwarfs that are companions to known late-type main-sequence stars located within 10 pcs of the sun. the 3 arcsec pixel field-of-view will be used to permit resolution of brown-dwarf companions as close as 15 au to the star and to provide sufficiently large spatial coverage (1.5 arcmin) that even widely separated companions will fall within the field subtended be cam. we will survey 43 m-dwarf stars, each with two cam passbands for 64 seconds in each band. the microscanning aot will be used for all observations. at 10 pcs, a 500 k brown dwarf is expected to have and 8 um flux density of about 0.4 mjy. the resultant signal-to-noise ratios in the two selected passbands (lw2 and lw10) are then expected to be in the range 4-9, which should be the worse case. we will also observe with isocam and isophot a sample of eight brown-dwarf candidates discovered prior to the iso mission. ** please note that correct proper motions are not yet given for all objects the proper motion information will be completed a.s.a.p **
Instrument
CAM01 , CAM04
Temporal Coverage
1996-02-29T10:46:10Z/1996-03-03T07:54:49Z
Version
1.0
Mission Description
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the world's first true orbiting infrared observatory. Equipped with four highly-sophisticated and versatile scientific instruments, it was launched by Ariane in November 1995 and provided astronomers world-wide with a facility of unprecedented sensitivity and capabilities for a detailed exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths.
