VLT/ERIS Observations of the V960 Mon System: A Dust-embedded Substellar Object Formed by Gravitational Instability?
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 ${L}^{{\prime} }$ -band imaging with...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade996 |
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| Summary: | 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 ${L}^{{\prime} }$ -band imaging with Very Large Telescope/Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph. The object is detected at a projected separation of 0 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 898 ± 0 $\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}$ 01 with a contrast of (8.39 ± 0.07) × 10 ^−3 . The candidate lies close to the clumps previously detected in the submillimeter (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 ∼38 M _Jup from the contrast curve. Using evolutionary models at an assumed age of 1 Myr, we estimate a mass of ∼660 M _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. |
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| ISSN: | 2041-8205 |