COSMOS-3D: Spectro-photometric Confirmation of Shabgard, a Cool, Metal-poor Brown Dwarf in the COSMOS Field

Abstract

Brown dwarfs are unique laboratories for studying cool atmospheres, the low-mass end of star formation, and the transition between stars and giant planets. Identifying and characterizing the coldest brown dwarfs remains challenging, particularly at faint magnitudes in deep extragalactic surveys. We investigate COSMOS2025 ID639188, hereafter Shabgard, a compact source previously selected as a brown-dwarf candidate from COSMOS-Web photometry. We use serendipitous JWST/NIRCam F444W wide-field slitless spectroscopy from COSMOS-3D, combined with COSMOS2025 NIRCam photometry and multi-epoch imaging. We extract a local-background-subtracted, profile-weighted $4.05$-$4.85\mu{\rm m}$ spectrum and compare the data with six atmosphere-model families. The LOWZ atmosphere-grid fit, using PCA interpolation and MCMC sampling, gives $T_{\rm eff}=718.6^{+10.6}_{-10.2}$ K and $[{\rm M/H}]=-1.00^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$, favoring a cool, subsolar-metallicity atmosphere near the late-T/Y transition. A fixed-atmosphere molecular-opacity test strongly favors a contribution from CH$_4$ to the observed $4$-$5 \mu{\rm m}$ spectral shape, although the restricted wavelength coverage prevents a molecule-by-molecule abundance determination. Model-dependent physical estimates span approximately $23$-$52 {\rm M_{\rm Jup}}$ and $140$-$180$ pc. We measure a proper motion of $|\mu|=89.2\pm0.4$ mas yr$^{-1}$, while the LOWZ MCMC flux scaling gives a distance of $176.2^{+18.4}_{-17.8}$pc. Together, these results support the classification of Shabgard as a cool, metal-poor Galactic brown dwarf and demonstrate the ability of JWST deep-field surveys to discover and characterize faint substellar objects.