We report on Submillimeter Array observations of the 870 \mu m continuum and CO ( 3–2 ) , ^ { 13 } CO ( 2–1 ) and C ^ { 18 } O ( 2–1 ) line emission of a faint object , SMM2E , near the driving source of the HH 797 outflow in the IC 348 cluster .
The continuum emission shows an unresolved source for which we estimate a mass of gas and dust of 30 M _ { \mathrm { Jup } } , and the CO ( 3–2 ) line reveals a compact bipolar outflow centred on SMM2E , and barely seen also in ^ { 13 } CO ( 2–1 ) .
In addition , C ^ { 18 } O ( 2–1 ) emission reveals hints of a possible rotating envelope/disk perpendicular to the outflow , for which we infer a dynamical mass of \sim 16 M _ { \mathrm { Jup } } .
In order to further constrain the accreted mass of the object , we gathered data from Spitzer , Herschel , and new and archive submillimetre observations , and built the Spectral Energy Distribution ( SED ) .
The SED can be fitted with one single modified black-body from 70 \mu m down to 2.1 cm , using a dust temperature of \sim 24 K , a dust emissivity index of 0.8 , and an envelope mass of \sim 35 M _ { \mathrm { Jup } } .
The bolometric luminosity is 0.10 L _ { \sun } , and the bolometric temperature is 35 K. Thus , SMM2E is comparable to the known Class 0 objects in the stellar domain .
An estimate of the final mass indicates that SMM2E will most likely remain substellar , and the SMM2E outflow force matches the trend with luminosity known for young stellar objects .
Thus , SMM2E constitutes an excellent example of a Class 0 proto-brown dwarf candidate which forms as a scaled-down version of low-mass stars .
Finally , SMM2E seems to be part of a wide ( \sim 2400 AU ) multiple system of Class 0 sources .