Discovery of 15 Myr Old pre-Main Sequence Stars with Active Accretion and Sizeable Discs in NGC 6611

Attention is given to a population of 110 stars with prominent near-infrared (NIR) excess in the NGC 6611 cluster of the Eagle Nebula that have optical colours typical of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars older than 10 Myr. In principle, their V-I colours would be consistent with those of young PMS objects (< 1 Myr), whose radiation is heavily obscured by a circumstellar disc seen at high inclination and in small part scattered towards the observer by the back side of the disc. However, using theoretical models it is shown here that objects of this type can only account for a few percent of this population. In fact, the spatial distribution of these objects, their X-ray luminosities, their optical brightness and their positions in the colour-magnitude diagram unambiguously indicate that most of these stars are intrinsically older than 10 Myr. Ages range from 8 to 30 Myr with a median value of 15 Myr. This is the largest homogeneous sample to date of Galactic PMS stars considerably older than 10 Myr that are still actively accreting from a circumstellar disc and it allows us to set a lower limit of 5% to the disc frequency at 15 Myr in NGC 6611. These values imply a characteristic exponential lifetime of 5 Myr for disc dissipation.