Deep NIR imaging of {rho} Oph cloud core

The results also suggest that the mass function for the {rho} Oph cloud resembles that of the {sigma} Orionis cluster based on a recent study, with both rising steadily toward lower masses. The other main result from our study is the apparent presence of a progressive blueward skew in the distribution of J-H and H-Ks colors, such that the blue end of the range becomes increasingly bluer with increasing magnitude. We suggest that this behavior might be understood in terms of the "ejected stellar embryo" hypothesis, whereby some of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs could escape to locations close to the front edge of the cloud, and thereby be seen with less extinction.