Science, Vol.282, No.5391, 1095-1097, 1998
Isolated and companion young brown dwarfs in the taurus and chamaeleon molecular clouds
Infrared imaging observations have detected a dozen faint young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Taurus and Chamaeleon molecular clouds whose near-infrared colors are similar to those of classical T Tauri stars (TTS). They are around four magnitudes fainter than low-luminosity YSOs in Taurus detected in earlier surveys and as much as eight magnitudes fainter than typical TTS. The extreme faintness of the objects and their lower luminosity relative to previously identified brown dwarfs in the Pleiades indicate that these faint YSOs are very young brown dwarfs on the order of 1 million years old.
Keywords:CHAMELEON DARK CLOUDS, STELLAR POPULATION, PLEIADES CLUSTER;STARS, PHOTOMETRY, DISCOVERY, MODEL