VLT/ERIS observations of the V960 Mon system: a dust-embedded substellar object formed by gravitational instability?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dasgupta, Anuroop, Zurlo, Alice, Weber, Philipp, Maio, Francesco, Cieza, Lucas A., Fedele, Davide, Garufi, Antonio, Miley, James, Pathak, Prashant, Pérez, Sebastián, Roccatagliata, Veronica
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Dasgupta, Anuroop
Zurlo, Alice
Weber, Philipp
Maio, Francesco
Cieza, Lucas A.
Fedele, Davide
Garufi, Antonio
Miley, James
Pathak, Prashant
Pérez, Sebastián
Roccatagliata, Veronica
author_facet Dasgupta, Anuroop
Zurlo, Alice
Weber, Philipp
Maio, Francesco
Cieza, Lucas A.
Fedele, Davide
Garufi, Antonio
Miley, James
Pathak, Prashant
Pérez, Sebastián
Roccatagliata, Veronica
contents V960~Mon is an FU Orionis object that shows strong evidence of a gravitationally unstable spiral arm that is fragmenting into several dust clumps. We report the discovery of a new substellar companion candidate around this young star, identified in high-contrast $L'$-band imaging with VLT/ERIS. The object is detected at a projected separation of $0.898 \pm 0.01$ arcseconds with a contrast of $(8.39 \pm 0.07) \times 10^{-3}$. The candidate lies close to the clumps previously detected in the sub-mm (at 1.3 mm) and is co-located with extended polarized IR signal from scattered stellar irradiation, suggesting it is deeply embedded. The object is undetected in the SPHERE $H$-band total intensity, placing an upper mass limit of $\sim38~M_\mathrm{Jup}$ from the contrast curve. Using evolutionary models at an assumed age of 1~Myr, we estimate a mass of $\sim660~M_\mathrm{Jup}$ from the L' brightness; however, this value likely includes a significant contribution from a disk around the companion. The discrepancy between near- and mid-infrared results again suggests the source is deeply embedded in dust. This candidate may represent an actively accreting, disk-bearing substellar object in a young, gravitationally unstable environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_13571
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle VLT/ERIS observations of the V960 Mon system: a dust-embedded substellar object formed by gravitational instability?
Dasgupta, Anuroop
Zurlo, Alice
Weber, Philipp
Maio, Francesco
Cieza, Lucas A.
Fedele, Davide
Garufi, Antonio
Miley, James
Pathak, Prashant
Pérez, Sebastián
Roccatagliata, Veronica
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
V960~Mon is an FU Orionis object that shows strong evidence of a gravitationally unstable spiral arm that is fragmenting into several dust clumps. We report the discovery of a new substellar companion candidate around this young star, identified in high-contrast $L'$-band imaging with VLT/ERIS. The object is detected at a projected separation of $0.898 \pm 0.01$ arcseconds with a contrast of $(8.39 \pm 0.07) \times 10^{-3}$. The candidate lies close to the clumps previously detected in the sub-mm (at 1.3 mm) and is co-located with extended polarized IR signal from scattered stellar irradiation, suggesting it is deeply embedded. The object is undetected in the SPHERE $H$-band total intensity, placing an upper mass limit of $\sim38~M_\mathrm{Jup}$ from the contrast curve. Using evolutionary models at an assumed age of 1~Myr, we estimate a mass of $\sim660~M_\mathrm{Jup}$ from the L' brightness; however, this value likely includes a significant contribution from a disk around the companion. The discrepancy between near- and mid-infrared results again suggests the source is deeply embedded in dust. This candidate may represent an actively accreting, disk-bearing substellar object in a young, gravitationally unstable environment.
title VLT/ERIS observations of the V960 Mon system: a dust-embedded substellar object formed by gravitational instability?
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13571