Related papers: Using Gaia for studying Milky Way star clusters
The velocity distribution of stars is a sensitive probe of the gravitational potential of the Galaxy, and hence of its dark matter distribution. In particular, the shape of the dark halo (e.g. spherical, oblate, or prolate) determines…
The application of clustering algorithms to the Gaia astrometric catalog has revolutionized our census of stellar populations in the Milky Way, including the discovery of many new, dispersed structures. We focus on one such structure, Theia…
Context. Star clusters constitute a significant part of the stellar population in our Galaxy. The feedback processes they exert on the interstellar medium impact multiple physical processes from the chemical to the dynamical evolution of…
With the start of the Gaia era, the time has come to address the major challenge of deriving the star formation history and evolution of the disk of our MilkyWay. Here we review our present knowledge of the outer regions of the Milky Way…
We propose to determine the stellar velocity dispersions of globular clusters in the outer halo of the Milky Way in order to decide whether the dynamics of the universe on large scales is governed by dark matter or modified Newtonian…
We report the result of searching for globular clusters (GCs) around 55 Milky Way satellite dwarf galaxies within the distance of 450 kpc from the Galactic Center except for the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and the Sagittarius dwarf.…
Open clusters have long been used as tracers of Galactic structure. However, without a selection function to describe the completeness of the cluster census, it is difficult to quantitatively interpret their distribution. We create a method…
Measurements of the surface brightness distribution and of the velocity dispersion profile have been so far used to infer the inner dynamics of globular clusters. We show that those observations do not trace back the dark matter potentially…
We present a Bayesian inference approach to estimating the cumulative mass profile and mean squared velocity profile of a globular cluster given the spatial and kinematic information of its stars. Mock globular clusters with a range of…
We have determined bulk proper motions (PMs) for 31 LMC GCs from Gaia eDR3 and Hubble Space Telescope data using multiple independent analysis techniques. Combined with literature values for distances, line-of-sight velocities and existing…
We use self-consistent numerical simulations of the evolution and disruption of the Sun's birth cluster in the Milky Way potential to investigate the present-day phase space distribution of the Sun's siblings. The simulations include the…
In this paper, we present a novel view on the morphology and the dynamical state of 10 prominent, nearby ($\leq$ 500 pc), and young ($\sim$30-300 Myr) open star clusters with Gaia DR2: $\alpha\,$Per, Blanco 1, IC 2602, IC 2391, Messier 39,…
Recent advances from astronomical surveys have revealed spatial, chemical, and kinematical inhomogeneities in the inner region of the stellar halo of the Milky Way Galaxy. In particular, large spectroscopic surveys, combined with Gaia…
Open Clusters are born and evolve along the Milky Way plane, on them is imprinted the history of the Galactic disc, including the chemical and dynamical evolution. Chemical and dynamical properties of open clusters can be derived from…
The LMC's Globular Clusters (GCs) bring a novel opportunity to understand the LMC's assembly history and dark matter (DM) properties, provided the kinematically outlying GCs can be reliably identified. However, traditional diagnostics like…
Observations of clusters suffer from issues such as completeness, projection effects, resolving individual stars and extinction. As such, how accurate are measurements and conclusions are likely to be? Here, we take cluster simulations…
The ESA cornerstone mission Gaia was successfully launched in 2013, and is now scanning the sky to accurately measure the positions and motions of about two billion point-like sources of 3<V<20.5 mag, with the main goal of reconstructing…
Context. The physical processes driving the formation of Galactic spiral arms are still under debate. Studies using open clusters favour the description of the Milky Way spiral arms as long-lived structures following the classical density…
Globular clusters are unique tracers of ancient star formation. We determine the formation efficiencies of globular clusters across cosmic time by modeling the formation and dynamical evolution of the globular cluster population of a Milky…
Open clusters are groups of stars that form at the same time, making them an ideal laboratory to test theories of star formation, stellar evolution, and dynamics in the Milky Way disk. However, the utility of an open cluster can be limited…