@article{df6c1f7f11c347f0aa35a45ec4f6b4f1,
title = "The missing link: Early methane ({"}T{"}) dwarfs in the sloan digital Sky Survey",
abstract = "We report the discovery of three cool brown dwarfs that fall in the effective temperature gap between the latest L dwarfs currently known, with no methane absorption bands in the 1-2.5 μm range, and the previously known methane (T) dwarfs, whose spectra are dominated by methane and water. The newly discovered objects were detected as very red objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data and have JHK colors between the red L dwarfs and the blue Gl 229B-like T dwarfs. They show both CO and CH4 absorption in their near-infrared spectra in addition to H2O, with weaker CH4 absorption features in the H and K bands than those in all other methane dwarfs reported to date. Due to the presence of CH4 in these bands, we propose that these objects are early T dwarfs. The three form part of the brown dwarf spectral sequence and fill in the large gap in the overall spectral sequence from the hottest main-sequence stars to the coolest methane dwarfs currently known.",
author = "Leggett, {S. K.} and Geballe, {T. R.} and Xiaohui Fan and Schneider, {Donald P.} and Gunn, {James E.} and Lupton, {Robert H.} and Knapp, {G. R.} and Strauss, {Michael A.} and Alex Mcdaniel and Golimowski, {David A.} and Henry, {Todd J.} and Eric Peng and Tsvetanov, {Zlatan I.} and Alan Uomoto and Wei Zheng and Hill, {G. J.} and Ramsey, {L. W.} and Anderson, {Scott F.} and Annis, {James A.} and Bahcall, {Neta A.} and J. Brinkmann and Bing Chen and Istv{\'a}n Csabai and Masataka Fukugita and Hennessy, {G. S.} and Hindsley, {Robert B.} and {\v Z}eljko Ivezi{\'c} and Lamb, {D. Q.} and Munn, {Jeffrey A.} and Pier, {Jeffrey R.} and Schlegel, {David J.} and Smith, {J. Allyn} and Chris Stoughton and Thakar, {A. R.} and York, {Donald G.}",
note = "Funding Information: The SDSS17 is a joint project of the University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Princeton University, the US Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. The site, Apache Point Observatory, is operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium. Funding has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the member institutions, and NASA, NSF, the US Department of Energy, and Monbusho Japan. UKIRT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. We thank Tim Carroll for his expert and cheerful help with the UKIRT observations and M.-C. Liang for assistance during the February 28–March 1 run. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universit{\"a}t M{\"u}nchen, and Georg-August-Universit{\"a}t G{\"o}ttin-gen. The HET principal benefactors are William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly. We thank Phillip MacQueen, Grant Hill, Matthew Sheltrone, and Marsha Wolf for help with the HET data. X. F. and M. A. S. acknowledge support from the Research Corporation, NSF grant AST 96-16901, the Princeton University Research Board, and a Porter O. Jacobus Fellowship. G. R. K. is grateful for support from Princeton University and from NASA via grant NAG-6734. D. P. S. thanks the NSF for support via grant AST 99-00703.",
year = "2000",
month = jun,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1086/312728",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "536",
pages = "L35--L38",
journal = "Astrophysical Journal",
issn = "0004-637X",
publisher = "American Astronomical Society",
number = "1 PART 2",
}