2MASS J035523.37+113343.7: A young, dusty, nearby, isolated brown dwarf resembling a giant exoplanet

Abstract

We present parallax and proper motion measurements, near-infrared spectra, and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer photometry for the low surface gravity L5γ dwarf 2MASS J035523.37+113343.7 (2M0355). We use these data to evaluate photometric, spectral, and kinematic signatures of youth as 2M0355 is the reddest isolated L dwarf yet classified. We confirm its low-gravity spectral morphology and find a strong resemblance to the sharp triangular shaped H-band spectrum of the ∼10 Myr planetary-mass object 2M1207b. We find that 2M0355 is underluminous compared to a normal field L5 dwarf in the optical and Mauna Kea Observatory J, H, and K bands and transitions to being overluminous from 3 to 12 μm, indicating that enhanced photospheric dust shifts flux to longer wavelengths for young, low-gravity objects, creating a red spectral energy distribution. Investigating the near-infrared color-magnitude diagram for brown dwarfs confirms that 2M0355 is redder and underluminous compared to the known brown dwarf population, similar to the peculiarities of directly imaged exoplanets 2M1207b and HR8799bcd. We calculate UVW space velocities and find that the motion of 2M0355 is consistent with young disk objects (<2-3 Gyr) and it shows a high likelihood of membership in the AB Doradus association. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.