Forty new low mass members with spectral types ranging from M4 - M9 have been confirmed in the Orion Molecular Cloud 2/3 region .
Through deep , I - , z ^ { \prime } - , J - , H - and K - band photometry of a 20 ^ { \prime } \times 20 ^ { \prime } field in OMC 2/3 , we selected brown dwarf candidates for follow-up spectroscopy .
Low resolution far-red and near-infrared spectra were obtained for the candidates , and 19 young brown dwarfs in the OMC 2/3 region are confirmed .
They exhibit spectral types of M6.5 - M9 , corresponding to approximate masses of 0.075 - 0.015 M _ { \odot } using the evolutionary models of Baraffe et al .
( 3 ) .
At least one of these bona fide young brown dwarfs has strong H \alpha emission , indicating that it is actively accreting .
In addition , we confirm 21 new low mass members with spectral types of M4 - M6 , corresponding to approximate masses of 0.35 - 0.10 M _ { \odot } in OMC 2/3 .
By comparing pre-main sequence tracks to the positions of the members in the H-R diagram , we find that most of the brown dwarfs are less than 1 Myr , but find a number of low mass stars with inferred ages greater than 3 Myr .
The discrepancy in the stellar and substellar ages is due to our selection of only low luminosity sources ; however , the presence of such objects implies the presence of an age spread in the OMC 2/3 region .
We discuss possible reasons for this apparent age spread .