Related papers: Unbound stars hold the key to young star cluster h…
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…
Stellar associations can be discerned as overdensities of sources not only in the physical space but also in the velocity space. The common motion of their members, gradually eroded by the galactic tidal field, is partially reminiscent of…
Currently clusters/associations of stars are mainly detected as surface density enhancements relative to the background field. While clusters form, their surface density increases. It likely decreases again at the end of the star formation…
Star clusters are interesting laboratories to study star formation, single and binary stellar evolution, and stellar dynamics. We have used the exquisite data from $Gaia$'s data release 3 (DR3) to study 21 relatively rich and nearby open…
Context. Stars tend to form in clusters, but many escape their birth clusters very early. Identifying the escaped members of clusters can inform us about the dissolution of star clusters, but also about the stellar dynamics in the galaxy.…
Open clusters and associations are groups of young stars, respectively bound and unbound, that share the same origin and disperse over time into the galactic field. As such, their formation and evolution are the key to understand the origin…
The ages of young star clusters are fundamental clocks to constrain the formation and evolution of pre-main-sequence stars and their protoplanetary disks and exoplanets. However, dating methods for very young clusters often disagree,…
Stars mostly form in groups consisting of a few dozen to several ten thousand members. For 30 years, theoretical models provide a basic concept of how such star clusters form and develop: they originate from the gas and dust of collapsing…
The period versus mass diagrams (i.e., rotational sequences) of open clusters provide crucial constraints for angular momentum evolution studies. However, their memberships are often heavily contaminated by field stars, which could…
(abridged) NGC6530 is a young cluster with a complex morphology and star-formation history. We present a statistical study of its global properties using a new large list of candidate members down to masses of 0.2-0.4 Msun and Gaia DR2…
Stars form predominantly in groups which display a broad spectrum of masses, sizes, and other properties. Despite this diversity there exist an underlying structure that can constrain cluster formation theories. We show how combining…
The residual gas within newly formed star clusters is expelled through stellar feedback on timescales ~ 1 Myr. The subsequent expansion of the cluster results in an unbinding of a fraction of stars before the remaining cluster members can…
Context: Star clusters, composed of stars born from the same molecular cloud, serve as invaluable natural laboratories for understanding the fundamental processes governing stellar formation and evolution. Aims: This study aims to…
The Gaia mission has opened a new window into the internal kinematics of young star clusters at the sub-km/s level, with implications for our understanding of how star clusters form and evolve. We use a sample of 28 clusters and…
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…
Membership of stars in open clusters is one of the most crucial parameters in studies of star clusters. Gaia opened a new window in the estimation of membership because of its unprecedented 6-D data. In the present study, we used published…
Star clusters are ideal tracers of star formation activity in systems outside the volume that can be studied using individual, resolved stars. These unresolved clusters span orders of magnitude in brightness and mass, and their formation is…
Many embedded star clusters do not evolve into long-lived bound clusters. The most popular explanation for this "infant mortality" of young clusters is the expulsion of natal gas by stellar winds and supernovae, which leaves up to 90% of…
Young stellar associations hold a star formation record that can persist for millions of years, revealing the progression of star formation long after the dispersal of the natal cloud. To identify nearby young stellar populations that trace…
Recent studies have identified star clusters with multiple components based on accurate spatial distributions and/or proper motions from Gaia DR3, utilising diverse diagnostics to improve our understanding of subgroup evolution. These…