In this review I discuss different theories of the formation of OB associations in the Milky Way, and provide the observational evidences in support of them. In fact, the second release of Gaia astrometric data (April 2018) is revolutionising the field, because it allows us to unravel the 3D structure and kinematics of stellar associations with unprecedented details by providing precise distances and a solid membership assessment. As an illustration, I summarise some recent studies on three OB associations: Cygnus OB2, Vela OB2, and Scorpius OB1, focussing in more detail to Sco OB1. A multi-wavelength study, in tandem with astrometric and kinematic data from Gaia DR2, seems to lend support, at least in this case, to a scenario in which star formation is not monolithic. As a matter of fact, besides one conspicuous star cluster, NGC 6231, and the very sparse star cluster Trumpler 24, there are several smaller groups of young OB and pre-main sequence stars across the association, indicating that star formation is highly structured and with no preferred scale. A new revolution is expected with the incoming much awaited third release of Gaia data.
With backwards orbit integration we estimate birth locations of young stellar associations and moving groups identified in the solar neighborhood that are younger than 70 Myr. The birth locations of most of these stellar associations are at smaller galactocentric radius than the Sun, implying that their stars moved radially outwards after birth. Exceptions to this rule include are the Argus and Octans associations which formed outside the Sun's Galactocentric radius. Variations in birth heights of the stellar associations suggest that they were born in a corrugated disk of molecular clouds, si…
Massive stellar content of stellar complexes and associations in M 33 is studied combining deep UBV photometry from the Local Group Survey (Massey et al. 2006) and JHK photometry from the 2MASS. Two basic populations (incl. OB stars and red supergiants) are distinguished and their application for reconstruction of the star formation process in this galaxy are discussed.
The main objective of this work is to investigate the role played by Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC) and Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL), both subcomponents of the Scorpio Centaurus OB association (Sco-Cen), in the formation of the groups beta Pictoris, TW Hydrae and the eta Chamaeleontis cluster. The dynamical evolution of all the stellar groups involved and of the bubbles and shells blown by LCC and UCL are calculated and followed from the past to the present. This leads to a formation scenario in which (1) the groups beta Pictoris, TW Hydrae were formed in the wake of the shells created by LCC and U…
In Galactic studies a distinction is made between (open) star clusters and associations. For barely resolved objects at a distance of several Mpc this distinction is not trivial to make. Here we provide an objective definition by comparing the age of the stars to the crossing time of nearby stellar agglomerates. We find that a satisfactory separation can be made where this ratio equals unity. Stellar agglomerates for which the age of the stars exceeds the crossing time are bound, and are referred to as star clusters. Alternatively, those for which the crossing time exceeds the stellar age are …
In this work we report the discovery of 2 new stellar associations in close vicinity of the Sun at roughly 180 and 150 pc. These two associations, named as u Tau assoc and e Tau assoc, were detected based on their clustering in a multi-dimensional parameter space including $α$, $δ$, $μ_α$ , $μ_δ$ and $π$ of Gaia. The fitting of pre-main-sequence model isochrones in their color-magnitude diagrams suggests that the two associations are of about 50 Myr old and the group members lower than ${\sim}$0.8 $M_{\odot}$ are at the stage of post-T Tauri.
The Vulpecula OB association, VulOB1, is a region of active star formation located in the Galactic plane at 2.3 kpc from the Sun. Previous studies suggest that sequential star formation is propagating along this 100 pc long molecular complex. In this paper, we use Spitzer MIPSGAL and GLIMPSE data to reconstruct the star formation history of VulOB1, and search for signatures of past triggering events. We make a census of Young Stellar Objects (YSO) in VulOB1 based on IR color and magnitude criteria, and we rely on the properties and nature of these YSOs to trace recent episodes of massive star …
The evolution of velocity dispersion in the Sco-Cen OB association
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院天文研究所）；Universität zu Köln（科隆大学）；University of Vienna（维也纳大学）；Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Univ. de Barcelona (UB)（巴塞罗那大学）；Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB)（宇宙科学研究所）
We present a study of the hierarchical clustering of the young stellar clusters in six local (3--15 Mpc) star-forming galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope broad band WFC3/UVIS UV and optical images from the Treasury Program LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey). We have identified 3685 likely clusters and associations, each visually classified by their morphology, and we use the angular two-point correlation function to study the clustering of these stellar systems. We find that the spatial distribution of the young clusters and associations are clustered with respect to each other, forming …
The problem of (non-)existence of a typical size of the stellar associations is revisited by use of deep UBVRI stellar CCD photometry in M 33 from the Local Group Survey (Massey et al. 2006). We compare the outlines of the `classical OB associations' (Ivanov 1991) with stellar groups that were selected through an objective method for determination of the local stellar density and delineation. Main parameters of some stellar groups like size, shape and density concentrations are determined.
It is currently widely accepted that open star clusters and stellar associations result from the evolution of embedded star clusters. Parameters such star formation efficiency, time-scale of gas removal and velocity dispersion can be determinants of their future as bound or unbound systems. Finding objects at an intermediate evolution state can provide constraints to model the embedded cluster evolution. In the HII region IC1396, Trumpler 37 is an extended young cluster that presents characteristics of an association. We employed the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) photometry to analysing it…
Connecting the gas in HII regions to the underlying source of the ionizing radiation can help us constrain the physical processes of stellar feedback and how HII regions evolve over time. With PHANGS$\unicode{x2013}$MUSE we detect nearly 24,000 HII regions across 19 galaxies and measure the physical properties of the ionized gas (e.g. metallicity, ionization parameter, density). We use catalogues of multi-scale stellar associations from PHANGS$\unicode{x2013}$HST to obtain constraints on the age of the ionizing sources. We construct a matched catalogue of 4,177 HII regions that are clearly lin…
Massive stars deeply modify their surrounding ISM via their high throughput of ionizing photons and their strong stellar winds. In this way they may create large expanding structures of neutral gas. We study a new large HI shell, labelled GS305+04-26, and its relationship with the OB association CenOB1. To carry out this study we have used a multi-wavelenght approach. We analyze neutral hydrogen (HI) line data retrieved from the Leiden-Argentina-Bonn (LAB) survey, new spectroscopic optical observations obtained at CASLEO, and make use of proper motion databases available via Internet. The anal…
Stellar ages are key to improving our understanding of different astrophysical phenomena. However, many techniques to estimate stellar ages are highly model-dependent. The lithium depletion boundary (LDB), based on the presence or absence of lithium in low-mass stars, can be used to derive ages in stellar associations of between 20 and 500~Ma. The purpose of this work is to revise former LDB ages in stellar associations in a consistent way, taking advantage of the homogeneous \textit{Gaia} parallaxes as well as bolometric luminosity estimations that do not rely on monochromatic bolometric corr…
It is widely accepted that stars do not form in isolation but result from the fragmentation of molecular clouds, which in turn leads to star cluster formation. Over time, clusters dissolve or are destroyed by interactions with molecular clouds or tidal stripping, and their members become part of the general field population. Star clusters are thus among the basic building blocks of galaxies. In turn, star cluster populations, from young associations and open clusters to old globulars, are powerful tracers of the formation, assembly, and evolutionary history of their parent galaxies. Although t…
The Tucana-Horologium association is one of the closest young stellar groups to the Sun and despite the close proximity its age is still debated in the literature. We take advantage of the state-of-the-art astrometry delivered by the third data release of the Gaia space mission combined with precise radial velocity measurements obtained from high-resolution spectroscopy to investigate the dynamical age of the association. We perform an extensive traceback analysis using a combination of different samples of cluster members, metrics to evaluate the minimum size of the association in the past an…
We use stellar proper motions from the TGAS catalog to study the kinematics of OB-associations. The TGAS proper motions of OB-associations generally agree well with the Hipparcos proper motions. The parameters of the Galactic rotation curve obtained with TGAS and Hipparcos proper motions agree within the errors. The average one-dimensional velocity dispersion inside 18 OB-associations with more than 10 TGAS stars is sigma_v=3.9 km s-1, which is considerably smaller, by a factor of 0.4, than the velocity dispersions derived from Hipparcos data. The effective contribution from orbital motions of…
Through analysis of archival images and photometry from the Spitzer GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys combined with 2MASS and MSX data, we have identified 488 candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) in the giant molecular cloud M17 SWex, which extends ~50 pc southwest from the prominent Galactic H II region M17. Our sample includes >200 YSOs with masses >3 Msun that will become B-type stars on the main sequence. Extrapolating over the stellar initial mass function (IMF), we find that M17 SWex contains >1.3x10^4 young stars, representing a proto-OB association. The YSO mass function is significantly s…
Context: The Ara OB1a association is a nearby complex in the fourth Galactic quadrant where a number of young/embedded star clusters are projected close to more evolved, intermediate age clusters. It is also rich in interstellar matter, and contains evidence of the interplay between massive stars and their surrounding medium, such as the rim HII region NGC 6188. Aims: We provide robust estimates of the fundamental parameters (age and distance) of the two most prominent stellar clusters, NGC 6167 and NGC 6193, that may be used as a basis for studing the star formation history of the region. Met…
The kinematics of young stellar population in the W5 region of the Cassiopeia OB6 association: implication on the formation process of stellar associations
We present an observational study of small-scale feedback processes operating in the star-forming region located in the wall of the expanding supershell around the Cyg OB1 association. The interstellar gas and dust content and pre-stellar populations in the vicinity of the open star cluster vdB 130 are analysed based on new optical and IR observations performed with the 6-m (3D spectroscopic mapping in the [SII] doublet) and 2.5-m (optical and NIR images) Russian telescopes along with the archival data of Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes. Analysing ionized gas kinematics and emission spec…
Stellar associations powering HII regions $\unicode{x2013}$ II. Escape fraction of ionizing photons
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学天文学计算研究所）；Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik（海德堡大学天文学中心理论天体物理研究所）；European Southern Observatory (ESO)（欧洲南方天文台）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿切尔蒂天文台）；International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia（西澳大利亚大学国际射电天文研究中心）；Astronomy Australia Ltd. (Perth Office), University of Western Australia（西澳大利亚大学澳大利亚天文学有限公司（珀斯办公室））；Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange（蔚蓝海岸大学蔚蓝海岸天文台法国国家科学研究中心拉格朗日实验室）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming（怀俄明大学物理与天文学系）
Using PHANGS-HST NUV-U-B-V-I imaging of 17 nearby spiral galaxies, we study samples of star clusters and stellar associations, visually selected to be bright and relatively isolated, for three purposes: to compute aperture corrections for star cluster photometry, to explore the utility of quantitative morphologies in the analysis of clusters and associations, and to compare to synthetic stellar population models. We provide a technical summary of our procedures to determine aperture corrections, a standard step in the production of star cluster candidate catalogs, and compare to prior work. We…
We report spectroscopic measurements of stars in the recently discovered young stellar association Price-Whelan 1 (PW 1), which was found in the vicinity of the Leading Arm (LA) of the Magellanic Stream. We obtained Magellan+MIKE high-resolution spectra of the 28 brightest stars in PW 1 and used The Cannon to determine their stellar parameters. We find that the mean metallicity of PW 1 is [Fe/H]=-1.23 with a small scatter of 0.06 dex and the mean radial velocity is Vhelio=276.7 km/s with a dispersion of 11.0 km/s. Our results are consistent in Teff, logg, and [Fe/H] with the young and metal-po…
Among a sample of 140 OB associations and clusters, we want to identify probable parent associations for the Guitar pulsar (PSR B2224+65) which would then also constrain its age. For this purpose, we are using an Euler-Cauchy technique treating the vertical component of the galactic potential to calculate the trajectories of the pulsar and each association into the past. To include errors we use Monte-Carlo simulations varying the initial parameters within their error intervals. The whole range of possible pulsar radial velocities is taken into account during the simulations. We find that the …
The Interstellar Medium has a fractal structure, in the sense that gas and dust distribute in a hierarchical and self-similar manner. Stars in new-born cluster probably follow the same fractal patterns of their parent molecular clouds. Moreover, it seems that older clusters tend to distribute their stars with radial density profiles. Thus, it is expected that clusters form with an initial fractal distribution of stars that eventually evolves toward centrally concentrated distributions. Is this really the case? This simple picture on to the origin and early evolution of star clusters and associ…
Based on Gaia DR2 data and new CHIRON radial velocities, we have discovered that two nearby stellar associations UPK 535 (318.08 $\pm$ 0.29 pc, $25^{+15}_{-10}$ Myr, 174 stars) and Yep 3 (339.54 $\pm$ 0.25 pc , $45^{+55}_{-20}$ Myr, 297 stars) in the Gum Nebula have recently collided. We project stars' current positions, motions, and measurement uncertainties backward and forward through time in a 10,000-trial Monte Carlo simulation. On average, the associations' centres of mass come within 18.89 $\pm$ 0.73 pc of each other 0.84 $\pm$ 0.03 Myr ago. A mode of 54 $\pm$ 7 close ($<$1 pc) stellar …
We present a large suite of MHD simulations of turbulent, star-forming giant molecular clouds(GMCs) with stellar feedback, extending previous work by simulating 10 different random realizations for each point in the parameter space of cloud mass and size. It is found that oncethe clouds disperse due to stellar feedback, both self-gravitating star clusters and unbound stars generally remain, which arise from the same underlying continuum of substructured stellar density, ie. the hierarchical cluster formation scenario. The fraction of stars that are born within gravitationally-bound star cluste…
Stellar kinematics provides the key to understanding star formation process. In this respect, we present a kinematic study of the Monoceros OB1 (Mon OB1) and R1 (Mon R1) associations using the recent Gaia data and radial velocities of stars derived from high-resolution spectroscopy and the literature. A total of 728 members are selected using the criteria based on the intrinsic properties of young stars, parallaxes, and proper motions. The spatial distribution and kinematic properties of members show that these associations have distinct substructures. In Mon OB1, we find one northern group an…
We report the results of our search of planet candidates in Open Clusters and Young Stellar Associations based on the TESS Objects of Interest Catalog. We find one confirmed planet, one promising candidate, one brown dwarf, and three unverified planet candidates in a sample of 1229 Open Clusters from the second Gaia data release. We discuss individual planet-star systems based on their basic parameters, membership probability, and the observation notes from the ExoFOP-TESS website. We also find ten planet candidates (P $>$ 95%) in Young Stellar Associations by using the BANYAN $Σ$ Bayesian Alg…
The Orion OB1a sub-association is a rich low mass star (LMS) region. Previous spectroscopic studies have confirmed 160 LMSs in the 25 Orionis stellar group (25 Ori), which is the most prominent overdensity of Orion OB1a. Nonetheless, the current census of the 25 Ori members is estimated to be less than 50% complete, leaving a large number of members to be still confirmed. We retrieved 172 low-resolution stellar spectra in Orion OB1a observed as ancillary science in the SDSS-III/BOSS survey, for which we classified their spectral types and determined physical parameters. To determine membership…
The proper motions of OB-associations computed using the old (Hipparcos 1997} and new (van Leeuwen 2007) reductions of the Hipparcos data are in a good agreement with each other. The Galactic rotation curve derived from an analysis of line-of-sight velocities and proper motions of OB-associations is almost flat in the 3-kpc neighborhood of the Sun. The angular rotation velocity at the solar distance is Omega_0=31 +/-1 km s-1 kpc-1. The standard deviation of the velocities of OB-associations from the rotation curve is sigma=7.2 km s-1. The distance scale for OB associations (Blaha & Humphreys 1…
We combine several surveys at different wavelengths with intermediate-band $ uvbyβ$ photometry to examine the correlation between the location of the OB-stars in the Centaurus star-forming field and the neutral and ionized material in GSH 305+01$-$24 supershell seen in the same direction. Based on homogeneous distances of nearly 700 early-type stars, we are able to select spatially coherent stellar groupings and to revise the classical concept of the Cen OB1 association. We argue that this star-forming field is closer to the Sun than estimated before, at a distance of $1.8\pm0.4$ kpc, instead …
Young field stars are hardly distinguishable from older ones because their space motion rapidly mixes them with the stellar population of the Galactic plane. Nevertheless, a careful target selection allows for young stars to be spotted throughout the sky. We aim to identify additional sources associated with the four young comoving stars that we discovered towards the CO Cepheus void and to provide a comprehensive view of the Cepheus association. Based on multivariate analysis methods, we have built an extended sample of 193 young star candidates, which are the optical and infrared counterpart…
Young associations in star forming regions are stellar systems that allow us to understand the mechanisms that characterise the stars in their early life and what happens around them. In particular, the analysis of the disks and of the exoplanets around young stars allows us to know the key processes that prevail in their evolution and understand the properties of the exoplanets orbiting older stars. The TESS mission is giving us the opportunity to extract and analyse the light curves of association members with high accuracy, but the crowding that affects these regions makes difficult the lig…
We present the results of a density-based clustering analysis of the 6-dimensional XYZ Galactic positions and UVW space velocities of nearby ($\leq$ 200 pc) Gaia EDR3 stars with radial velocities using HDBSCAN, in opposition to previous studies that only included positions and tangential velocities. Among the 241 recovered clusters, we identify more than 50 known associations, 32 new candidate stellar streams aged 100 Myr-3 Gyr, 9 extensions of known Theia groups uncovered by Kounkel & Covey (2019), and 8 newly recognized coronae around nearby open clusters. Three confirmed exoplanet-hosting s…
OB associations are unbound groups of young stars made prominent by their bright OB members, and have long been thought to be the expanded remnants of dense star clusters. They have been important in astrophysics for over a century thanks to their luminous massive stars, though their low-mass members have not been well studied until the last couple of decades. This has changed thanks to data from X-ray observations, spectroscopic surveys and astrometry from Gaia that allows their full stellar content to be identified and their dynamics to be studied, which in turn is leading to changes in our …
High-contrast imaging studies of debris disks have revealed a significant diversity in their morphologies, including large-scale asymmetries. Theories involving stellar flybys, an external source of gravitational disturbance, have offered a plausible explanation for the origin of these morphological variations. Our study is an experiment to gain empirical evidence that has been lacking from such theories. We explore this paradigm by using astrometric and radial velocity measurements from the Gaia DR2 and ground-based observations to trace the trajectories of 625 stars in the Sco-Cen OB Associa…
Historically, it has often been asserted that most stars form in compact clusters. In this scenario, present-day gravitationally-unbound OB associations are the result of the expansion of initially gravitationally-bound star clusters. However, this paradigm is inconsistent with recent results, both theoretical and observational, that instead favour a hierarchical picture of star formation in which stars are formed across a continuous distribution of gas densities and most OB associations never were bound clusters. Instead they are formed in-situ as the low-density side of this distribution, ra…
Planetary Nebula Central Stars as Tracers of Planetary Nebula-Star Cluster Associations in the Galaxy
Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro（瓦隆戈天文台，里约热内卢联邦大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica, Depto. de. Física y Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andrés Bello（安德烈斯·贝略大学精确科学学院物理与天文学系天体物理研究所）；Vatican Observatory（梵蒂冈天文台）；Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro（里约热内卢联邦大学物理研究所）
The study of young associations is essential for building a complete record of local star formation processes. The Fornax-Horologium association (FH), including the $χ^1$ Fornacis cluster, represents one of the nearest young stellar populations to the Sun. This association has recently been linked to the Tuc-Hor, Carina, and Columba associations, building an extensive "Austral Complex" almost entirely within 150 pc. Using Gaia astrometry and photometry in addition to new spectroscopic observations, we perform the deepest survey of FH to date, identifying over 300 candidate members, nearly doub…
