2006A&A...453..937Y

We report the discovery of a group of 12 new infrared sources seen toward IRAS 10501-5630 and the southern dark globule DC 287.1+02.4. The globule appears as a round patch of extinction in optical images with a typical diameter of 5 arcmin. The sources are seen on Ks and L' band images taken using SOFI at the NTT and ISAAC at the VLT. The globule was mapped in millimeter molecular transitions (CO(1-0), C¹⁸O(1-0), C¹⁸O(2-1), CS(2-1), HCN(1-0)) using the SEST telescope. Millimeter-wave spectroscopy revealed a single dense core seen in C¹⁸O, CS, and HCN, extending about 2 arcmin. The infrared sources are likely to be embedded in the dense cloud core. The reddest of the new infrared sources, named here DC 287.1+02.4 IRS, is not detected shortward of 2µm, and it exhibits a very red (Ks-L') colour. The location and colour of this source suggest that this is the near-infrared counterpart of IRAS 10501-5630. Red nebular emission with an elongated shape is also seen in the H and Ks band images and could be due to scattered light originating in the embedded objects.