We have carried out near-IR/optical observations to examine star formation toward a bright-rimmed cometary globule ( BRC37 ) facing the exciting star ( s ) of an HII region ( IC1396 ) containing an IRAS source , which is considered to be an intermediate-mass protostar .
With slitless spectroscopy we detected ten H \alpha emission stars around the globule , six of which are near the tip of the globule and are aligned along the direction to the exciting stars .
There is evidence that this alignment was originally toward an O9.5 star , but has evolved to align toward a younger O6 star when that formed .
Near-IR and optical photometry suggests that four of these six stars are low-mass young stellar objects ( YSOs ) with masses of \sim 0.4 M _ { \sun } .
Their estimated ages of \sim 1 Myr indicate that they were formed at the tip in advance of the formation of the IRAS source .
Therefore , it is likely that sequential star formation has been taking place along the direction from the exciting stars toward the IRAS source , due to the UV impact of the exciting star ( s ) .
Interestingly , one faint , H \alpha emission star , which is the closest to the exciting star ( s ) , seems to be a young brown dwarf that was formed by the UV impact in advance of the formation of other YSOs at the tip .