ISOCAM observations of the L1551 star formation region ^*,**,***

¹ Stockholm Observatory, Sweden
² Nordic Optical Telescope, Canary Islands, Spain
³ Observatoire de Bordeaux, Floirac, France
⁴ SNSB, PO Box 4006, 171 04 Solna, Sweden
⁵ IAS, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
⁶ Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
⁷ SIRTF Science Center, California Institute of Technology, 220-6, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁸ Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, UK
⁹ Joint Astronomy Center, Hawaii
¹⁰ ENS Radioastronomie, Paris, France
¹¹ IAS, CNR, Rome, Italy
¹² ISO Data Centre, ESA Astrophysics Division, Villafranca del Castillo, Spain
¹³ Observatoire de Lyon, France

Corresponding author: M. Gålfalk, magnusg@astro.su.se

Received: 28 November 2003
Accepted: 15 March 2004

Abstract

The results of a deep mid-IR ISOCAM survey of the L1551 dark molecular cloud are presented. The aim of this survey is a search for new YSO (Young Stellar Object) candidates, using two broad-band filters centred at 6.7 and 14.3 μm. Although two regions close to the centre of L1551 had to be avoided due to saturation problems, 96 sources were detected in total (76 sources at 6.7 μm and 44 sources at 14.3 μm). Using the 24 sources detected in both filters, 14 were found to have intrinsic mid-IR excess at 14.3 μm and were therefore classified as YSO candidates. Using additional observations in B, V, I, J, H and K obtained from the ground, most candidates detected at these wavelengths were confirmed to have mid-IR excess at 6.7 μm as well, and three additional YSO candidates were found. Prior to this survey only three YSOs were known in the observed region (avoiding L1551 IRS 5/NE and HL/XZ Tau). This survey reveals 15 new YSO candidates, although several of these are uncertain due to their extended nature either in the mid-IR or in the optical/near-IR observations. Two of the sources with mid-IR excess are previously known YSOs, one is a brown dwarf (MHO 5) and the other is the well known T Tauri star HH 30, consisting of an outflow and an optically thick disk seen edge on.