  Strong outbursts in very young and embedded protostars are rare and not yet
fully understood. They are believed to originate from an increase of the mass
accretion rate onto the source. We report the discovery of a strong outburst in
a low-mass embedded young stellar object (YSO), namely 2MASS-J05424848-0816347
or [CTF93]216-2, as well as its photometric and spectroscopic follow-up. Using
near- to mid-IR photometry and NIR low-resolution spectroscopy, we monitor the
outburst, deriving its magnitude, duration, as well as the enhanced accretion
luminosity and mass accretion rate. [CTF93]216-2 increased in brightness by
~4.6, 4.0, 3.8, and 1.9 mag in the J, H, Ks bands and at 24 um, respectively,
corresponding to an L_bol increase of ~20 L_sun. Its early spectrum, probably
taken soon after the outburst, displays a steep almost featureless continuum,
with strong CO band heads and H_2O broad-band absorption features, and Br gamma
line in emission. A later spectrum reveals more absorption features, allowing
us to estimate T_eff~3200 K, M~0.25 M_sun, and mass accretion rate~1.2x10^{-6}
M_sun yr^{-1}. This makes it one of the lowest mass YSOs with a strong outburst
so far discovered.

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics