Searching for substructures in Young Stellar Associations

• Grant number: 24/23573-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Stellar Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Jane Cristina Gregorio-Hetem
• Grantee: Eduardo Batista
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/08726-2 - Early evolution of the young stellar clusters, AP.R

Abstract

Inspired by previous works from our team exploring the dynamical and structural characteristics of several stellar groups in different Galactic regions, our study aims to expand the understanding of star formation, especially in the Canis Major (CMa) OB1/R1 Association. The region offers a unique scenario, where evidence of filamentary structures and correlations between kinematic features and density distributions have been identified. Focusing on the characterization of open Galactic clusters, the project aims to expand the student's learning in the techniques used to identify members of stellar groups, especially using data from the GAIA satellite. By exploring astrometric and kinematic data to identify members and possible substructures or subgroups, the characterization of objects is complemented with photometric information obtained from optical and infrared catalogs. The methodology involves the use of tools for cross-correlation between data from different catalogs, in addition to the use of algorithms that are built for the identification of overdensities in various parameter spaces. Once the catalog of members and candidates has been created, the additional data are used to construct color-color and color-magnitude diagrams, diagnostic histograms and the isochrones fitting to estimate masses and ages, and identify objects with circumstellar disks.