Recently , the Spitzer Space Telescope discovered L 1014-IRS , a mid-infrared source with protostellar colors , toward the heretofore “ starless ” core L 1014 .
We present deep near-infrared observations that show a scattered light nebula extending from L 1014-IRS .
This nebula resembles those typically associated with protostars and young stellar objects , tracing envelope cavities presumably evacuated by an outflow .
The northern lobe of the nebula has an opening angle of \sim 100 ^ { \circ } , while the southern lobe is barely detected .
Its morphology suggests that the bipolar cavity and inferred protostellar disk is not inclined more than 30 ^ { \circ } from an edge-on orientation .
The nebula extends at least 8 ^ { \prime \prime } from the source at K _ { s } , strongly suggesting that L 1014-IRS is embedded within L 1014 at a distance of 200 pc rather than in a more distant cloud associated with the Perseus arm at 2.6 kpc .
In this case , the apparently low luminosity of L 1014-IRS , 0.090 L _ { \odot } , is consistent with it having a substellar mass .
However , if L 1014-IRS is obscured by a circumstellar disk , its luminosity and inferred mass may be greater .
Using near-infrared colors of background stars , we investigate characteristics of the L 1014 molecular cloud core .
We determine a mass of 3.6 M _ { \odot } for regions of the core with A _ { V } \geq 2 magnitudes .
A comparison of the radial extinction profile of L 1014 with other cores suggests that L 1014 may be among the most centrally condensed cores known , perhaps indicative of the earliest stages of brown dwarf or star formation processes .