Infrared properties of IRAS sources associated with nearby dark molecular clouds

Abstract

We present an analysis of the infrared properties of a sample of IRAS sources associated with nearby dark molecular clouds. Examination of the luminosities and distribution of sources in colour−colour space suggests that they are T-Tauri stars and younger embedded cores, with mass typically ∼ 1 M ○. . The broad range of colour temperatures as a function of wavelength implies the presence of extended circumstellar dust components with considerable temperature variations. We combine the IRAS data with existing broad-band photometry between ∼ 1 μm and 20 μm to construct the spectral energy distributions for a small number of sources