Discovery of New Ultracool White Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Abstract

We report the discovery of five new white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Four are ultracool, exhibiting strong collision-induced absorption (CIA) from molecular hydrogen and are similar in color to the three previously known coolest white dwarfs, SDSS J1337+00, LHS 3250, and LHS 1402. The fifth star shows milder CIA flux suppression and has a color and spectral shape similar to WD 0346+246. All five new white dwarfs are faint (g > 18.9) and have significant proper motions. One of the new ultracool white dwarfs, SDSS J0947, appears to be in a binary system with a slightly warmer (Teff ^ 5000 K) white dwarf companion.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 10, 2004
Accession Number
ADA435801

Entities

People

  • Atsuko Nitta
  • Dan Long
  • Don Q. Lamb
  • Eric H. Neilsen Jr.
  • Evalyn Gates
  • Geza Gyuk
  • Howard Brewington
  • Hugh D. Harris
  • J. Brinkmann
  • James Liebert
  • Jurek Krzesinski
  • Mark Subbarao
  • Michael Harvanek
  • Peter R. Newman
  • S. J. Kleinman
  • Scott L. Anderson
  • Stephanie A. Snedden

Organizations

  • United States Naval Observatory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Atmospheres
  • Atmospheric Composition
  • Catalogs
  • Celestial Brightness
  • Elements
  • Hydrogen
  • Information Operations
  • Luminosity
  • Mathematics
  • New Mexico
  • Observatories
  • Sequences
  • Spectra
  • Spectral Energy Distribution
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy/Astrophysics