RED DWARFS IN THE CORONAE OF GALAXIES AS MACHOS

It is shown that three detected cases of microlensing of stars in the LMC may be in agreement with a model in which the corona of our Galaxy consists of stars with mass greater than the minimal limit for red dw arves (M > 0.08M(.)). Such an inference about the nature of MACHOs (MA ssive Compact Halo Objects) was made on the basis of estimates of the optical depth of these objects under die assumption of an Isothermic d istribution of their density in the corona of the Galaxy, and limits f or the brightness in the K filter for the coronae of several nearby '' edge-on'' galaxies. This suggestion is consistent with data on the mag nitude of the background at 2.2 mu m in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy.