A Companion to the White Dwarf G261-43

Infrared images at wavelengths between 1 and 2.5 mu m reveal that the nearby 16 000 K white dwarf, G261-43, has a companion located 1.4 arcsec (similar to 30 AU) away. The companion is, apparently, another white dwarf of temperature similar to 5000 K. We estimate a difference of about 4 mag at V band. This suggests that infrared imaging with good image quality can be a useful method for discovering double white dwarfs where the components have significantly different temperatures and small separations. (C) 1997 American Astronomical Society.