The star formation history of the Sco-Cen association

Coherent star formation patterns in space and time^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ University of Vienna, Department of Astrophysics, Türkenschanzstraße 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: sebastian.ratzenboeck@univie.ac.at
² University of Vienna, Research Network Data Science at Uni Vienna, Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Vienna, Austria
³ University of Vienna, Faculty of Computer Science, Währinger Straße 29/S6, 1090 Vienna, Austria
⁴ University of Vienna, ISOR/VCOR, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria
⁵ School of Physical and Chemical Sciences – Te Kura Matū, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 9150, New Zealand
⁶ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
⁷ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS- 42, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
⁸ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
⁹ Institute for Advanced Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China
¹⁰ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Received: 14 May 2023
Accepted: 7 July 2023

Abstract

We reconstructed the star formation history of the Sco-Cen OB association using a novel high-resolution age map of the region. We developed an approach to produce robust ages for Sco-Cen’s recently identified 37 stellar clusters using the SigMA algorithm. The Sco-Cen star formation timeline reveals four periods of enhanced star formation activity, or bursts, remarkably separated by about 5 Myr. Of these, the second burst, which occurred about 15 million years ago, is by far the dominant one, and most of Sco-Cen’s stars and clusters were in place by the end of this burst. The formation of stars and clusters in Sco-Cen is correlated but not linearly, implying that more stars were formed per cluster during the peak of the star formation rate. Most of the clusters that are large enough to have supernova precursors were formed during the second burst around 15 Myr ago. Star and cluster formation activity has been continuously declining since then. We have clear evidence that Sco-Cen formed from the inside out and that it contains 100-pc long chains of contiguous clusters exhibiting well-defined age gradients, from massive older clusters to smaller young clusters. These observables suggest an important role for feedback in forming about half of Sco-Cen stars, although follow-up work is needed to quantify this statement. Finally, we confirm that the Upper-Sco age controversy discussed in the literature during the last decades is solved: the nine clusters previously lumped together as Upper-Sco, a benchmark region for planet formation studies, exhibit a wide range of ages from 3 to 19 Myr.