Bok globules in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We report the discovery of small, isolated dust clouds in the Large Magella nic Cloud (LMC) that are excellent candidates for counterparts to the Bok g lobules observed in the Galaxy. We detect these small clouds silhouetted ag ainst diffuse H alpha emission on the basis of parallel imaging with the Wi de Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The clouds we id entify as Bok globule candidates have typical sizes of approximately 1 ", c orresponding to a linear diameter of about 0.25 pc at the distance of the L MC. We derive lower limits for the optical depth within the dark clouds and masses, assuming that the clouds have density distributions similar to Gal actic Bok globules. The sizes and estimated masses for LMC globules are com parable to those estimated for Galactic globules. An extended sample of suc h objects would be excellent targets for high-resolution infrared and milli meter observations to study low-mass star formation in such clouds in low-m etallicity environments where the distance is well known.