Enigmatic Brown Dwarf WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 (a.k.a. "The Accident")

Abstract

Continued follow-up of WISEA J153429.75−104303.3, announced in Meisner et al., has proven it to have an unusual set of properties. New imaging data from Keck/MOSFIRE and HST/WFC3 shows that this object is one of the few faint proper motion sources known with J − ch2 >8 mag, indicating a very cold temperature consistent with the latest known Y dwarfs. Despite this, it has W1−W2 and ch1−ch2 colors ~1.6 mag bluer than a typical Y dwarf. A new trigonometric parallax measurement from a combination of WISE, Spitzer, and HST astrometry confirms a nearby distance of 16.3^(+1.4)_(-1.2) pc and a large transverse velocity of 207.4 ± 15.9 km s⁻¹. The absolute J, W2, and ch2 magnitudes are in line with the coldest known Y dwarfs, despite the highly discrepant W1−W2 and ch1−ch2 colors. We explore possible reasons for the unique traits of this object and conclude that it is most likely an old, metal-poor brown dwarf and possibly the first Y subdwarf. Given that the object has an HST F110W magnitude of 24.7 mag, broadband spectroscopy and photometry from JWST are the best options for testing this hypothesis.