Letter to the Editor

VLT/NACO adaptive optics imaging of the TY CrA system

A fourth stellar component candidate detected

¹ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Observatoire de Grenoble, 414 rue de la piscine, 38400 Saint-Martin d'Hères, France
² ONERA, BP52, 29 avenue de la Division Leclerc, 92320 Châtillon Cedex, France
³ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 57 Av. d'Azereix, BP 826, 65008 Tarbes Cedex, France
⁴ Laboratoire D'Études Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, Bat. 16, 5 Place J. Jansen, 92195 Meudon, France
⁵ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, PO Box 1597, Kamuela, HI96743, USA
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁷ ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany

Corresponding author: G. Chauvin, gchauvin@obs.ujf-grenoble.fr

Received: 17 February 2003
Accepted: 13 April 2003

Abstract

We report the detection of a possible subsolar mass companion to the triple young system TY CrA using the NACO instrument at the VLT UT4 during its commissioning. Assuming for TY CrA a distance similar to that of the close binary system HD 176386, the photometric spectral type of this fourth stellar component candidate is consistent with an ~M 4 star. We discuss the dynamical stability of this possible quadruple system as well as the possible location of dusty particles inside or outside the system.