[Previous] | [Session 149] | [Next]
L.E. Allen, P.C. Myers (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), R. Mathieu (University of Wisconsin), J. Di Francesco (Nortel Networks), E. Young (Steward Observatory)
We present results of a HST/NICMOS imaging survey of dense molecular cores in the heart of the Ophiuchus star-forming region, Lynds 1688. We detected 165 sources at 1.6 micron, within our estimated completeness limit of 21.0 mag. About a third of these sources were also detected at 1.1 micron, and about half are catalogued here for the first time.
The faint embedded sources revealed in this survey are spatially concentrated in three regions of high stellar space density (N > 104 stars pc-3). While the spatial distribution of these sources reflects that of the brighter, well-known population of young stellar objects in the cloud, it is distinctly different from that of the cool concentrations seen in the submillimeter. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of star formation in clusters, and present results on new candidate brown dwarfs, binary and triple systems, and YSO morphologies revealed in this survey.