The discovery of a companion to the very cool dwarf gliese 569B with the Keck adaptive optics facility

We report observations obtained with the Keck adaptive optics facility of the nearby (d = 9.8 pc) binary Gl 569. The system was known to be composed of a cool primary (dM2) and a very cool secondary (dM8.5) with a separation of 5 " (49 AU). We have found that Gl 569B is itself double with a separation of only 0 ".101 +/- 0 ".002 (1 AU). This detection demonstrates the superb spatial resolution that can be achieved with adaptive optics at Keck. The difference in brightness between Gl 569B and the companion is similar to 0.5 mag in the J, H, and K' bands. Thus, both objects have similarly red colors and very likely constitute a very low mass binary system. For reasonable assumptions about the age (0.12-1.0 Gyr) and total mass of the system (0.09-0.15 M.), we estimate that the orbital period is similar to 3 yr. Follow-up observations will allow us to obtain an astrometric orbit solution and will yield direct dynamical masses that can constrain evolutionary models of very low mass stars and brown dwarfs.