THE EXTREMELY RED, YOUNG L DWARF PSO J318.5338−22.8603: A FREE-FLOATING PLANETARY-MASS ANALOG TO DIRECTLY IMAGED YOUNG GAS-GIANT PLANETS

We have discovered using Pan-STARRS1 an extremely red late-L dwarf, which has (J − K)MKO = 2.78 and (J − K)2MASS = 2.84, making it the reddest known field dwarf and second only to 2MASS J1207−39b among substellar companions. Near-IR spectroscopy shows a spectral type of L7 ± 1 and reveals a triangular H-band continuum and weak alkali (K i and Na i) lines, hallmarks of low surface gravity. Near-IR astrometry from the Hawaii Infrared Parallax Program gives a distance of 24.6 ± 1.4 pc and indicates a much fainter J-band absolute magnitude than field L dwarfs. The position and kinematics of PSO J318.5−22 point to membership in the β Pic moving group. Evolutionary models give a temperature of 1160 K and a mass of 6.5 MJup, making PSO J318.5−22 one of the lowest mass free-floating objects in the solar neighborhood. This object adds to the growing list of low-gravity field L dwarfs and is the first to be strongly deficient in methane relative to its estimated temperature. Comparing their spectra suggests that young L dwarfs with similar ages and temperatures can have different spectral signatures of youth. For the two objects with well constrained ages (PSO J318.5−22 and 2MASS J0355+11), we find their temperatures are ≈400 K cooler than field objects of similar spectral type but their luminosities are similar, i.e., these young L dwarfs are very red and unusually cool but not “underluminous.” Altogether, PSO J318.5−22 is the first free-floating object with the colors, magnitudes, spectrum, luminosity, and mass that overlap the young dusty planets around HR 8799 and 2MASS J1207−39.

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