IRAS 20050+2720: An embedded young cluster associated with a multipolar outflow

We obtained near-IR images at 1-5 mu m of IRAS 20050+2720, a very red far-infrared source with a multipolar outflow (as noted by Bachiller et al.). Of the 212 sources we detected, half of them are probably members of an embedded cluster around the IRAS source. More than 50% of the cluster members show near-IR excesses, suggesting that they are pre-main-sequence stars with circumstellar emission. The luminosity functions of the cluster show turnovers and slopes consistent with pre-main-sequence model predictions for an average cluster age of similar to 1 Myr. Three subclusters are identified within the cluster. One of them (subcluster A) appears to be associated with denser molecular gas and higher extinction than the other two subclusters. It also coincides with the IRAS source, a compact millimeter continuum source, and the center of the multipolar CO outflow. We identified in subcluster A several deeply embedded sources with sharply rising spectral energy distributions. These results support strongly the suggestion that the multipolar outflow is the result of simultaneous star formation within 0.1 pc of the IRAS source. We suggest that the cluster was formed in several episodes of star formation over the last similar to 1 Myr and that subcluster A represents the most recent episode that formed multiple young stars within similar to 0.1 Myr.