An Ultra-hot Low-mass Brown Dwarf Eclipsing the Puffy White Dwarf J0404+1112

Abstract Most exoplanets known orbit stars that will evolve into red giants, then white dwarfs (WDs). Understanding the population of substellar WD companions informs the common-envelope evolution process (E. Villaver &amp; M. Livio 2009), thereby shedding light on the current and future planetary population of the Milky Way. Here, we report the discovery of a low-mass (25 ± 5 M Jup ) brown dwarf (BD) fully eclipsing every 2.93 hr the WD J0404+1112, which we found to be an unexpectedly large host WD (2 R Earth ). The eclipsing nature of the system, the low masses of the primary (∼0.3 M Sun ) and secondary, and the large day–night temperature contrast for the BD ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">⪭</mml:mi> </mml:math> 2000 K) make it a prime target amongst the dozen WD+BD systems known for a detailed study via JWST phase-curve observations.

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Publication Details

Journal
Research Notes of the AAS
Published
2025-10-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae1228
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

An Ultra-hot Low-mass Brown Dwarf Eclipsing the Puffy White Dwarf J0404+1112

Benjamin V. Rackham, Susan M. Lederer, M. Gillon, A. C. A. Boogert et al.
Research Notes of the AAS
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
article

An Ultra-hot Low-mass Brown Dwarf Eclipsing the Puffy White Dwarf J0404+1112

Benjamin V. Rackham, Susan M. Lederer, M. Gillon, A. C. A. Boogert, R. Alonso, A. H. M. J. Triaud, Artem Burdanov, Mathilde Timmermans, Khalid Barkaoui, Julien de Wit, Mariangel Albornoz, T. Cavalier
article en

Abstract

Abstract Most exoplanets known orbit stars that will evolve into red giants, then white dwarfs (WDs). Understanding the population of substellar WD companions informs the common-envelope evolution process (E. Villaver &amp; M. Livio 2009), thereby shedding light on the current and future planetary population of the Milky Way. Here, we report the discovery of a low-mass (25 ± 5 M Jup ) brown dwarf (BD) fully eclipsing every 2.93 hr the WD J0404+1112, which we found to be an unexpectedly large host WD (2 R Earth ). The eclipsing nature of the system, the low masses of the primary (∼0.3 M Sun ) and secondary, and the large day–night temperature contrast for the BD ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">⪭</mml:mi> </mml:math> 2000 K) make it a prime target amongst the dozen WD+BD systems known for a detailed study via JWST phase-curve observations.

Research Notes of the AASVol. 9(10)
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US), University of Liège (BE), Universidad de La Laguna (ES), University of Florida (US), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (ES), Johnson Space Center (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Birmingham (GB)
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