Abstract
The discovery of the first methane brown dwarf provides a framework for describing the important advances in both fundamental physics and astrophysics that are due to the study of companions of stars. I present a few highlights of the history of this subject along with details of the discovery of the brown dwarf Gliese 229B. The nature of companions of stars is discussed with an attempt to avoid biases induced by anthropocentric nomenclature. With the newer types of remote reconnaissance of nearby stars and their systems of companions, an exciting and perhaps even more profound set of contributions to science is within reach in the near future. This includes an exploration of the diversity of planets in the universe and perhaps soon the first solid evidence for biological activity outside our Solar System.
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- 1.
In this same paper, Michell derives the first reasonably accurate distance to Sirius, short by about a factor of four, and discusses why stars twinkle. Later Michell also proposed the concept of black holes based on Newtonian physics. His early calculations are not vastly different from those that use general relativity. Michell was truly a remarkable contributor to modern astrophysics.
- 2.
Proper motions of stars had been well established much earlier. In 1717 Edmund Halley used ancient catalogs, such as those of Ptolemy, Hipparchos and more recent positions of Aldeberan, Arcturus and Sirius to demonstrate motion (Halley 1717). Jacques Cassini, in 1740, confirmed the proper motion of Arcturus (Cassini 1740). By 1770, Tobias Mayer’s catalog of 80 proper motions established the direction of motion of the Sun with respect to the stars (Mayer and Maskelyne 1770).
- 3.
A fascinating story surrounds the companion of Sirius and a modern desire among some to believe that societies with ancient roots have known what modern science only recently discovered. In 1950, an anthropologist studying the Dogon tribe in Mali, West Africa, published an account of a ceremony, supposedly performed since “ancient” times, which involves the fact that Sirius, central to their calendar system and mythology, is accompanied by an invisible, very heavy and metallic companion (Griaule and Dieterlen 1950). How could this ancient ceremony have been established unless an advanced, possibly extraterrestrial, civilization had visited thousands of years ago and told them about it? However, as a number of scientists have pointed out (e.g., Roxburgh and Williams 1975), the existence of Sirius B was known since the 1860s and its odd nature had been revealed by 1915 in America and Europe. Between 1915 and 1950 the Dogon had been visited by various European missionaries prior to Griaule’s study. Perhaps these visitors and their communications with the Dogon provide a far simpler explanation.
- 4.
The actual book in which Aristarchus describes the first heliocentric model has not survived, but Archimedes in The Sand Reckoner leaves no doubt about Aristarchus’s idea and the subsequent discussions it caused (see pp. 85–86 in North 1995).
- 5.
I visited Caltech in the spring of 1994 when I was deciding where to go to graduate school. One of the best parts of that trip was that Shri invited me up to Palomar to spend a night at the Hale Telescope with him, Keith Matthews and Tom Hamilton. I rented a ridiculously small car and went, not knowing that I was going to drive Shri and Tom back to Caltech. Tom is rather tall and courageously squeezed into a half seat in the back of the car, his head tilted against the ceiling for the two hour drive. As we drove down the mountain I had no idea Shri would test me. One of the questions he asked was “what is the peak wavelength of a 1000 K blackbody?” Driving at 70 mph down the freeway, I recall suddenly becoming nervous, but also scrabbling my way through the answer. I got it pretty close, but Shri then started spewing out all kinds of really simple quick relations of this sort, the kind you can do in your head in seconds. I’ve never forgotten that, and though he did put me on the spot, I decided on that car ride that I really wanted to work with him. It was a good choice. Shri, though we had our differences at times, could not have been a better thesis advisor.
- 6.
After publication of the discovery of the companion to Gliese 229B, the IAU sent an admonishing letter to Shri that the designation GL was not appropriate because it conflicted with a U. S. Air Force catalog of celestial sources. Officially, we had to call it Gliese 229.
- 7.
At the time, many instruments produced data in non-standard formats that had to be converted at one’s home institution where better computers were available.
- 8.
Incidentally, my qualifying exam was scheduled for early November 1995, right in the midst of revising and working to finish the papers and get them accepted for publication. I decided not to study for the test much, since I thought my work on these two papers should take precedence over an exam. I do not regret that decision, and, although Shri and I discussed postponing the exam, we decided I should simply do it. I failed, but I had a really wonderful scientific result. In the end, I retook the exam and did well, some months later.
- 9.
Dave Golimowski liked to call these “Sloan Clones” at the time.
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Acknowledgements
The work described regarding Gliese 229B involved many people other than myself and I am deeply grateful for having been able to work with Tadashi Nakajima, Sam Durrance, Shri Kulkarni, Dave Golimowski, Keith Matthews and Marten van Kerkwijk. It was an honor to conduct such work with them. Project 1640 also involves a great team of collaborators. Further information on them and that project can be found at www.amnh.org/project1640.
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Oppenheimer, B.R. (2014). Companions of Stars: From Other Stars to Brown Dwarfs to Planets and the Discovery of the First Methane Brown Dwarf. In: Joergens, V. (eds) 50 Years of Brown Dwarfs. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 401. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01162-2_6
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