Spitzer identification of the least massive known brown dwarf with a circumstellar disk

Using the Infrared Array Camera ( IRAC) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have obtained mid- infrared photometry of the least massive known brown dwarf in the Chamaeleon I star- forming region. For this young brown dwarf, OTS 44, we have constructed a spectral energy distribution ( SED) from 0.8 to 8 mum by combining the measurements at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 mum from IRAC with ground- based photometry at I, J, H, and K. The resulting SED for OTS 44 exhibits significant excess emission longward of 3 mum relative to the SED expected from the photosphere of the brown dwarf. We have successfully modeled the source of this excess emission in terms of an irradiated viscous accretion disk with M less than or similar to 10(-10) M. yr(-1). With a spectral type of M9.5 and a mass of similar to 15M(Jup), OTS 44 is now the coolest and least massive brown dwarf observed to have a circumstellar disk. M Jup These measurements demonstrate that disks exist around brown dwarfs even down to the deuterium- burning mass limit and the approximate upper mass limit of extrasolar planetary companions.