ON THE NATURE OF THE STELLAR CLUSTER AT THE ROSETTE GMC CO PEAK

K'-band imaging of the Rosette giant molecular cloud CO emission peak reveals the presence of a newly discovered small cluster of stars, coi ncident with the IRAS source 06314+0427 (Block et al. 1993). We have o btained a high-resolution K-band spectrum of the brightest member of t he cluster (dubbed BG/IRS1). The Brgamma 2.166 mum line shows a double peaked emission, indicative of a hot star with a disklike circumstell ar geometry. We have obtained JHK photometry, which has allowed us to determine the near-IR extinction toward the cluster (A(K) = 1.m5 +/- . 5). Assuming a distance of 1600 pc for the cluster, we show that at le ast two of the stars appear to be well above the ZAMS, based upon thei r inferred spectral types and MK magnitudes. From this we conclude tha t we are seeing a pre-main-sequence cluster of stars.