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Very Low-Luminosity Objects in Star-Forming Regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

Motohide Tamura
Affiliation:
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo181, Japan
Yoichi Itoh
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181, Japan
Yumiko Oasa
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181, Japan
Alan Tokunaga
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI96822, USA
Koji Sugitani
Affiliation:
Nagoya City University, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467, Japan

Abstract

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In order to tackle the problems of low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) in star-forming regions and the formation mechanisms of brown dwarfs, we have conducted deep infrared surveys of nearby molecular clouds. We have found a significant population of very low-luminosity sources with IR excesses in the Taurus cloud and the Chamaeleon cloud core regions whose extinction corrected J magnitudes are 3 to 8 mag fainter than those of typical T Tauri stars in the same cloud. Some of them are associated with even fainter companions. Follow-up IR spectroscopy has confirmed for the selected sources that their photospheric temperature is around 2000 to 3000 K. Thus, these very low-luminosity young stellar sources are most likely very low-mass T Tauri stars, and some of them might even be young brown dwarfs.

Type
II. Joint Discussions
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1998

References

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