A search for T Tauri stars in high-latitude molecular clouds. I - IRAS sources and CCD imaging

Abstract

Results are reported from a search for excess H-alpha emission from point sources in 19 high-Galactic-latitude molecular clouds (two dark clouds and 17 translucent clouds). A total of 111 candidate sources from the IRAS Point Source Catalog were evaluated, but most of these (except for five T Tau stars in the dark clouds) were found to be 100-micron cirrus sources, galaxies, or field stars. CCD observations of 23 ambiguous sources were obtained in the red and H-alpha bands using a CCD detector on the 0.9-m telescope at KPNO during September 1987 and February 1988: no H-alpha/R ratios more than 5 sigma above the respective field averages were found. It is concluded that significant low-mass star formation in translucent high-latitude molecular clouds is unlikely. 30 refs.