LP 714-37: A wide pair of ultracool dwarfs actually is a triple

Abstract

LP 714-37 was identified by Phan-Bao et al. (2005) as one of the very few wide pairs of very low mass (VLM) stars known to date, with a separation of 33 AU. Here we present adaptive optics imaging which resolves the secondary of the wide pair into a tighter binary, with a projected angular separation of 0.36 arcsec, or 7 AU. The estimated spectral types of LP 714-37B and LP 714-37C are M8.0 and M8.5. We discuss the implications of this finding for brown dwarf formation scenarios.

Accepted by ApJ Letters