Related papers: SONYC - Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Cluster…
We exploit the ability of the Hubble Space Telescope to probe near infrared water absorption present in the atmosphere of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects to create a very pure sample of Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC)…
Context. Brown dwarfs represent a sizable fraction of the stellar content of our Galaxy and populate the transition between the stellar and planetary mass regime. There is however no agreement on the processes responsible for their…
We present a spectroscopic study of candidate brown dwarf members of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We obtained new J- and/or K-band spectra of ~100 objects within the ONC which are expected to be substellar based on their K,(H-K)…
We report on a sensitive infrared search for disks around isolated young planetary-mass objects (PMOs) in the NGC1333 cluster, by stacking 70 Spitzer/IRAC frames at 3.6 and 4.5$\,\mu m$. Our co-added images go >2.3 mag deeper than…
The rapid advances in infrared detector technology over the past decades have impelled the development of wide-field instruments, and shaped our view of the cold universe. Large scale surveys in our Galaxy have discovered hundreds of brown…
We present the substellar mass function of star-forming clusters ($\simeq$0.1 Myr old) in a low-metallicity environment ($\simeq$$-$0.7 dex). We performed deep JWST/NIRCam and MIRI imaging of two star-forming clusters in Digel Cloud 2, a…
"Free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects" are isolated bodies of a few Jupiter masses found in very young open clusters and associations, nearby young moving groups and in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. They are neither…
We present a combined analysis of the low-mass Initial Mass Function (IMF) for seven star forming regions. We first demonstrate that the ratios of stars to brown dwarfs are consistent with a single underlying IMF. Assuming the underlying…
We present the results of near-infrared imaging and low-resolution near- infrared spectroscopy of low mass objects in the NGC 1333 molecular cloud. A JHK survey of an 11.4' x 11.7' area of the northern cluster was conducted to a sensitivity…
Recent surveys have identified sub-stellar objects down to planetary masses in nearby star-forming regions. Reliable determination of the disk frequency in young brown dwarfs is of paramount importance to understanding their origin. Here we…
In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) obtained 1-5um images of the center of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). I have analyzed these data in an attempt to search for substellar members of the cluster. Using a pair of color-color…
NGC 2264 is a young (3 Myr), populous star forming region for which our optical studies have revealed a very high density of potential brown dwarf (BD) candidates - 236 in less than 1 sq. deg. - from the substellar limit down to 20 Mjup.…
We describe the results of a very deep imaging survey of the Trapezium Cluster in the IJH bands, using the UKIRT high resolution camera UFTI. Approximately 32% of the 515 point sources detected are brown dwarf candidates, including several…
We report the first results of our ongoing campaign to discover the first brown dwarfs (BD) in NGC 2264, a young (3 Myr), populous star forming region for which our optical studies have revealed a very high density of potential candidates -…
Due to its youth, proximity and richness the Orion Nebula Cloud (ONC) is an ideal testbed to obtain a comprehensive view on the Initial Mass Function (IMF) down to the planetary mass regime. Using the HAWK-I camera at the VLT, we have…
The dominant formation mechanism of brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects in star-forming regions is presently uncertain. Do they form like stars, via the collapse and fragmentation of cores in Giant Molecular clouds, or do they form like…
A complete accounting of nearby objects -- from the highest-mass white dwarf progenitors down to low-mass brown dwarfs -- is now possible, thanks to an almost complete set of trigonometric parallax determinations from Gaia, ground-based…
To investigate the universality hypothesis of the initial mass function in the substellar regime, the population of the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud is analysed by including a new sample of low-mass spectroscopically confirmed members. To…
I present infrared spectroscopy of 37 brown dwarf candidates in the Upper Sco association, 35 of which are classified as young and cool, making them likely members. This sample includes many of the faintest spectroscopically confirmed…
Three component models of the IMF are made to consider possible origins for the observed relative variations in the numbers of brown dwarfs, solar-to-intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars. Three distinct physical processes are noted.…