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Issue A&A Volume 376, Number 2, September II 2001 Page(s) L22 - L25 Section Letters DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20011055

A&A 376, L22-L25 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011055

Exploring brown dwarf disks

A. Natta and L. Testi

Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy

(Received 3 July 2001 / Accepted 24 July 2001)

Abstract
We discuss the spectral energy distribution of three very low mass objects in Chamaeleon I for which ground-based spectroscopy and photometry as well as ISO measurements in the mid-infrared are available (Comerón et al. 2000; Persi et al. 2000). One of these stars (Cha H1) is a bona-fide brown dwarf, with mass 0.04-0.05 . We show that the observed emission is very well described by models of circumstellar disks identical to those associated to T Tauri stars, scaled down to keep the ratio of the disk-to-star mass constant and to the appropriate stellar parameters. This result provides a first indication that the formation mechanism of T Tauri stars (via core contraction and formation of an accretion disk) extends to objects in the brown dwarf mass range.

Offprint request: A. Natta, natta@arcetri.astro.it

SIMBAD Objects in preparation

© ESO 2001

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