A Near-Infrared Survey for Pre-Main Sequence Stars in Taurus

GOMEZ, M., KENYON, S. J., HARTMANN, L.

ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1994 p. 1850 - 1858

0004-6256

We present a near-infrared survey of approximately 2 sq deg covering parts of L1537, L1538, and Heiles cloud 2 in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. Although this study is more sensitive than previous attempts to identify pre-main sequence stars in Taurus-Auriga, our survey regions contain only one new optically visible, young star. We did find several candidate embedded protostars; additional 10 micrometer photometry is necessary to verify the pre-main sequence nature of these sources. Our results--combined with those of previous surveys-- show that the L1537/L1538 clouds contain no pre-main sequence stars. These two clouds are less dense than the active star formation sites in Taurus-Auriga, which suggests a cloud must achieve a threshold density to form stars.