VIc photometry of IR-excess stars in NGC6611

At least half of those for which spectroscopy exists have a H{alpha} emission line profile revealing active accretion. In principle, the V-I colours of all these stars would be consistent with those of young PMS objects (<1Myr) whose radiation is heavily obscured by a circumstellar disc seen at high inclination and in small part scattered towards the observer by the back side of the disc.

However, using theoretical models it is shown here that objects of this type can only account for a few percent of this population. In fact, the spatial distribution of these objects, their X-ray luminosities, their optical brightness, their positions in the colour-magnitude diagram and the weak Li absorption lines of the stars studied spectroscopically suggest that most of them are at least eight times older than the ~1Myr-old PMS stars already known in this cluster and could be as old as ~30Myr.