2 FAINT COMPANIONS TO THE NEARBY LOW-MASS STAR LHS-1070

As part of a survey for duplicity among nearby M dwarfs with the techn ique of near-infrared speckle imaging we detected two faint companions to the low-mass star LHS 1070. Apportioning the system brightness amo ng the main component and the companions of this triple system, we obt ain absolute brightnesses at 2.2 mu m of K-A=9.27 mag, K-B=10.47 mag a nd K-C=10.82 mag. Based on the empirical mass-a magnitude relationship for M dwarfs (Henry and McCarthy 1993), a primary mass of m(A)=0.099 M(o) is estimated, while the masses of the companions should be close to or even slightly below the hydrogen burning limit of 0.08 solar mas ses. LHS 1070 has an important advantage over the few still fainter ca ndidates for substellar masses: orbital motion within this triple syst em with its small component separations of a few astronomical units wi ll allow useful dynamical mass determinations for the companions withi n the next few years. The observed changes in relative position of the components between July 1993 and April 1994 appear compatible with th e photometrically deduced very low component masses.