SVS-16 - THE MOST X-RAY LUMINOUS YOUNG STELLAR OBJECT

We present new infrared and X-ray data on the optically invisible infr ared source SVS 16 in the NGC 1333 star forming region. We show that S VS 16 is a binary with a separation of 1''. The infrared spectrum disp lays photospheric atomic and CO absorption lines, and thus shows that SVS 16 is a highly obscured (A(V) similar to 26 mag) low mass young st ellar object. Our infrared data allow us to derive basic stellar param eters of SVS 16. We find that the binary system probably consists of t wo M-type pre-main sequence stars, which seem to be younger than a few 10(5) yrs. Our new ROSAT PSPC data confirm the previous detection wit h the ROSAT HRI and show that SVS 16 has an extremely high quiescent X -ray luminosity of about 2 x 10(32) erg/sec in the 0.1 - 2.4 keV band, making it the young stellar object with the brightest quiescent X-ray emission ever detected. We discuss the origin of the strong X-ray emi ssion.