Probing Dust around Brown Dwarfs: The Naked LP 944-20 and the Disk of Chamaeleon Hα 2

Abstract

We present the first mid-infrared (MIR) detection of a field brown dwarf (BD) and the first ground-based MIR measurements of a disk around a young BD candidate. We prove the absence of warm dust surrounding the field BD LP 944-20. In the case of the young BD candidate Cha Hα 2, we find clear evidence for thermal dust emission from a disk. Surprisingly, the object does not exhibit any silicate feature as previously predicted. We show that the flat spectrum can be explained by an optically thick flat dust disk.