Search for: All records

Abstract We present measurements of the H- and K -band veiling for 141 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region using high-resolution spectra from the Immersion Grating Near-Infrared Spectrometer. In addition to providing measurements of r H and r K , we produce low-resolution spectra of the excess emission across the H and K bands. We fit temperatures to the excess spectra of 46 members of our sample and measure near-infrared excess temperatures ranging from 1200–2200 K, with an average of 1575 ± 225 K. We compare the luminosity of the excess continuum emission in Class II and Class III YSOs and find that a number of Class III sources display a significant amount of excess flux in the near-infrared. We conclude that the mid-infrared SED slope, and therefore young stellar object classification, is a poor predictor of the amount of near-infrared veiling. If the veiling arises in thermal emission from dust, its presence implies a significant amount of remaining inner-disk (<1 au) material in these Class III sources. We also discuss the possibility that the veiling effects could result from massive photospheric spots, unresolved binary companions, or accretion emission. Six low-mass members of our sample contain a prominent feature in their H -band excess spectra that is consistent with veiling from cool photospheric spots.