Keck Observations in the INfrared of Taurus and $\ddot{I}$ Oph Exoplanets And Ultracool dwarfs (KOINTREAU) I: A Planetary-Mass Companion and a Disk-Obscured Stellar Companion Discovered in Taurus

Abstract

We present the first discoveries from Keck Observations in the INfrared of Taurus and $\ddot{I}$ Oph Exoplanets And Ultracool dwarfs (KOINTREAU), an adaptive optics imaging survey of young stars in the Taurus and $\ddot{I}$ Oph star-forming regions using the Keck infrared pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS). We have found two faint ($\hat{I}”$K~7 mag), wide-separation companions to two ~3-Myr-old Taurus members. Relative astrometry for these systems show that both companions are bound to their host stars. We obtained near-infrared spectra of these companions using IRTF/SpeX (R~100) and Gemini/GNIRS (R~1000-2000), and combine these with photometry from our NIRC2 imaging, the Pan-STARRS survey, and Spitzer/IRAC archival imaging to constrain their properties. One companion, KOINTREAU-1b (at a projected separation of 690 au), has an average near-IR spectral type of M9$\pm$2, a gravity classification of VL-G, and a changing spectral type between the SpeX (M7) and GNIRS (L1) observations. We estimate this object's mass to be $10.6_{-2.3}^{+2.5}$ M${}_{\mathrm{Jup}}$, making KOINTREAU-1b the fifth planetary-mass companion found in Taurus. The other companion, KOINTREAU-2b (projected separation 560 au), has a spectral type of M4.5$\pm$1 but is ~4 magnitudes underluminous relative to other Taurus stars of the same spectral type. We detect exceptionally strong He I 1.083 micron emission from this object, indicative of outflows driven by ongoing accretion, but with a conspicuous lack of accompanying H emission. We conclude that KOINTREAU-2b is a young star obscured by an edge-on disk and observed in scattered light. Finally, we derive a distortion solution for NIRC2 imaging which shows a 0.118° difference in position angle from the previous distortion solution.

29 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication by AJ