1. Young Brown Dwarfs in OMC 2/3: SpeX 0.8-2.5 µm Observations Dawn Peterson (Univ. of Virginia) Tom Megeath (Univ. of Toledo) from Peterson et al. 2007: "New Young Brown Dwarfs in the Orion Molecular Cloud 2/3 Region"

2. Source Selection: Young Brown Dwarf Candidates in Orion Molecular Cloud 2/3 From JHK-band imaging, we selected SpeX candidates based on location in the color-mag diagram: –Below hydrogen burning limit –Av > 7 –13 < K < 16 mag

3. SpeX Spectra: Grid of Standards Obtained SpeX single-prism mode spectra of giants, dwarfs and young stars of types M4-M9 in Taurus and IC 348 for comparison –0.8 - 2.5 µm –R ~ 250

4. SpeX Spectra: OMC 2/3 Brown Dwarf Candidate 29 Reference spectra (blue and red lines) from young members in Taurus Compared strengths of water and CO absorption bands Best fit: M8.5 (red spectrum)

5. Results Color-color diagram of the OMC 2/3 brown dwarfs. 14 NEW low mass stars (M4-M6) and BDs (M6.5-M9) in OMC 2/3 with SpeX Spitzer IRAC data shows brown dwarfs with excesses: 70% of them have disks! (approx. the same as was found for stars)