A Near-Infrared Imaging Survey of the Chamaeleon I Dark Cloud

Abstract

We describe a near-infrared imaging survey covering D1 deg2 of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud. The survey is complete for K \ 15.0, H \ 16.0, and J \ 16.5, roughly 2 magnitudes more sensitive than previous large-scale surveys. We use the large number of background stars detected to derive an accurate near-infrared extinction law for the cloud and select new candidate members with near-infrared color excesses. We list D100 candidates of the cloud with K º 12.0, based on their positions in the J[H, H[K color-color diagram. These new stars have low luminosities (K D 12È16, and H[K Z 0.5È1.5) may have masses close to or even below the hydrogen-burning limit.