Program: GN-2007A-Q-13

The formation mechanism of brown dwarfs is presently unknown. There are currently several competing theories to explain their low masses, including the 'ejected stellar embryo' hypothesis and photoevaporation of the gaseous envelopes of protostars by O-type stars during star formation. During a spectroscopic survey of the outer parts of the Orion Nebula cluster we detected a low luminosity source with spatially extended H_2 emission and an anomalously blue I-J colour. We believe it to be a proto-brown dwarf or very low mass protostar with circumstellar matter that is excited by the O-type Trapezium stars. The blue colour is attributed to scattering by dust. We propose a NIFS K band IFU+AO study to provide the first spatially resolved map of circumstellar matter around a proto-brown dwarf in order to test the different formation theories. NIFS will map several H_2 lines and may detect the first dust disc around a brown dwarf.