Astron. Astrophys. 338, 977-987 (1998)

5. Conclusion

The investigation of the DENIS data obtained in the Cha I cloud allowed the identification of 54 new faint YSOs candidates. They are selected on the basis of a large infrared excess and their concentration near to the cores of the cloud. Because of their IR excess they are likely to be surrounded by a massive circumstellar disk for which the visual extinction can reach 10 magnitudes (Fig. 5) and thus are probably Classical TTS. Comparison of the different magnitudes in the three DENIS channels shows that the excess is magnitudes, in agreement with Meyer et al. (1997) who estimate from spectroscopic observations a K excess smaller than 1.6 magnitudes. Investigations on the Luminosity Function down to shows important results concerning the age of our sample. First of all, youngest stars in the Cha I cloud are about years, except for few protostars. Moreover, the decrease of the KLF for indicates that stars older than years have lost their circumstellar disk. The maximum life time of active disk is estimated to years, after this period, the accretion becomes too small (.yr^-1) to produce an infrared excess. Spectroscopic follow-up of this new sample is underway to confirm definitely the nature of the newly discovered objects.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1998

Online publication: September 17, 1998
helpdesk.link@springer.de