A rich star-forming region in the direction of RCW 95

Near-IR imaging in the direction of the IRAS 15408-5356 point source, which is associated with the RCW 95 H II region, revealed a young and massive stellar cluster. We detected 136 member candidates up to our completeness limit, embedded in an infrared nebula and concentrated in an area of about 3 pc(2). About 60% of the candidates detected in all three of the J, H, and K bands present infrared excess at 2.2 mum. The UV photons provided by the most massive stars are enough to explain the observed free-free emission at radio wavelengths and the integrated infrared luminosity produced by the heated dust. The near-IR counterpart of the IRAS point source was identified using a more accurate position from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) catalog; it coincides with the peak of emission in the MSX mid-IR bands. The measured integrated flux density of the infrared nebula at the K band is compatible with the expected free-free emission derived from the radio data, but an excess at the J and H bands was detected and may be due to either nonhomogeneous absorption across the nebula or to the presence of scattered stellar light, more prominent at smaller wavelengths.