A Near-Infrared Imaging Survey of the Chamaeleon I Dark Cloud

GÓMEZ, M., KENYON, S.

ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2001 p. 974 - 983

0004-6256

We describe a near-infrared imaging survey covering ~1 deg^2 of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud. The survey is complete for K<15.0, H<16.0, and J<16.5, roughly 2 magnitudes more sensitive than previous large-scale surveys. We use the large number of background stars detected to derive an accurate near-infrared extinction law for the cloud and select new candidate members with near-infrared color excesses. We list ~100 candidates of the cloud with K>=12.0, based on their positions in the J-H, H-K color-color diagram. These new stars have low luminosities (K~12-16, H-K>~0.5-1.5) and may have masses close to or even below the hydrogen-burning limit.