Exploring brown dwarf disks

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

Corresponding author: A. Natta, natta@arcetri.astro.it

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. [CITE]; Persi et al. [CITE]). One of these stars (Cha Hα1) 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.