A&A 515, A75 (2010) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200913900 & c ESO 2010 Astrophysics The low-mass population of the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud, C. Alves de Oliveira1,E.Moraux1, J. Bouvier1,H.Bouy2,C.Marmo3, and L. Albert4 1 Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, Observatoire de Grenoble, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Herschel Science Centre, European Space Agency (ESAC), PO Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain 3 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France 4 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA Received 18 December 2009 / Accepted 27 February 2010 ABSTRACT Context. Star formation theories are currently divergent regarding the fundamental physical processes that dominate the substellar regime. Observations of nearby young open clusters allow the brown dwarf (BD) population to be characterised down to the planetary mass regime, which ultimately must be accommodated by a successful theory. Aims. We hope to uncover the low-mass population of the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud and investigate the properties of the newly found brown dwarfs. Methods. We used near-IR deep images (reaching completeness limits of approximately 20.5 mag in J and 18.9 mag in H and Ks) taken with the Wide Field IR Camera (WIRCam) at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to identify candidate members of ρ Oph in the substellar regime. A spectroscopic follow-up of a small sample of the candidates allows us to assess their spectral type and subsequently their temperature and membership.