TATOOINE'S FUTURE: THE ECCENTRIC RESPONSE OF KEPLER'S CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS TO COMMON-ENVELOPE EVOLUTION OF THEIR HOST STARS.

Inspired by the recent Kepler discoveries of circumbinary planets orbiting nine close binary stars, we explore the fate of the former as the latter evolve off the main sequence. We combine binary star evolution models with dynamical simulations to study the orbital evolution of these planets as their hosts undergo common-envelope (CE) stages, losing in the process a tremendous amount of mass on dynamical timescales. Five of the systems experience at least one Roche-lobe overflow and CE stage (Kepler-1647 experiences three), and the binary stars either shrink to very short orbits or coalesce; two systems trigger a double-degenerate supernova explosion. Kepler's circumbinary planets predominantly remain gravitationally bound at the end of the CE phase, migrate to larger orbits, and may gain significant eccentricity; their orbital expansion can be more than an order of magnitude and can occur over the course of a single planetary orbit. The orbits these planets can reach are qualitatively consistent with those of the currently known post-CE, eclipse-time variations circumbinary candidates. Our results also show that circumbinary planets can experience both modes of orbital expansion (adiabatic and nonadiabatic) if their host binaries undergo more than one CE stage; multiplanet circumbinary systems like Kepler-47 can experience both modes during the same CE stage. Additionally, unlike Mercury orbiting the Sun, a circumbinary planet with the same semimajor axis can survive the CE evolution of a close binary star with a total mass of 1 M ⊙.

DISCOVERY OF TWO VERY WIDE BINARIES WITH ULTRACOOL COMPANIONS AND A NEW BROWN DWARF AT THE L/T TRANSITION.

We present the discovery and spectroscopic follow-up of a nearby late-type L dwarf (2M0614+3950), and two extremely wide very-low-mass binary systems (2M0525-7425AB and 2M1348-1344AB), resulting from our search for common proper motion pairs containing ultracool components in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) catalogs. The near-infrared spectrum of 2M0614+3950 indicates a spectral type L9 ± 1 object residing at a distance of 26.0 ± 1.8 pc. The optical spectrum of 2M0525-7425A reveals an M3.0 ± 0.5 dwarf primary, accompanied by a secondary previously classified as L2. The system has an angular separation of ~ 44″, equivalent to ~ 2000 AU at distance of 46.0 ± 3.0 pc. Using optical and infrared spectra, respectively, we classify the components of 2M1348-1344AB as M4.5 ± 0.5 and T5.5 ± 1. The angular separation of ~ 68″ is equivalent to ~ 1400 AU at a distance of 20.7 ± 1.4 pc. 2M1348-1344AB is one of only six very wide (separation > 1000 AU) systems containing late T dwarfs known to date.

Discovery of a young planetary-mass binary.

We have identified a companion to the young planetary-mass brown dwarf Oph 162225-240515. This pair forms a resolved binary consisting of two objects with masses comparable to those of extrasolar giant planets. Several lines of evidence confirm the coevality and youth of the two objects, suggesting that they form a physical binary. Models yield masses of approximately 14 and approximately 7 times the mass of Jupiter for the primary and the secondary object, respectively, at an age of approximately 1 million years. A wide ( approximately 240-astronomical unit) binary in the ultra-low-mass regime poses a challenge to some popular models of brown dwarf formation.