English

Methane T-Dwarf Candidates in the Star Forming Region IC 348

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

IC 348 is a young (t\sim3Myr) and nearby (d\sim340pc) star forming region in the Perseus molecular cloud. We performed a deep imaging survey using the MEGACAM (z-band) and WIRCAM (JHK and narrowband CH4{_4} on/off) wide-field cameras on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. From the analysis of the narrowband CH4{_4} on/off deep images, we report 4 T-dwarf candidates, of which 3 clearly lie within the limits of the IC 348 cluster. An upper limit on the extinction was estimated for each candidate from colour-magnitude diagrams, and found consistent with extinction maps of the cloud. Initial comparisons with T-dwarf spectral models suggest these candidates have a spectral type between T3 and T5, and perhaps later, potentially making these among the lowest mass isolated objects detected in a young star forming region so far.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.2683,
  title  = {Methane T-Dwarf Candidates in the Star Forming Region IC 348},
  author = {Andrew Burgess and Jerome Bouvier and Estelle Moraux},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.2683},
  year   = {2009}
}