| Issue |
A&A
Volume 679, November 2023
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | L10 | |
| Number of page(s) | 11 | |
| Section | Letters to the Editor | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347186 | |
| Published online | 15 November 2023 | |
Letter to the Editor
The Corona Australis star formation complex is accelerating away from the Galactic plane⋆
1
University of Vienna, Department of Astrophysics, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: laura.posch@univie.ac.at
2
University of Vienna, Research Network Data Science at Uni Vienna, Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Wien, Austria
3
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
4
University Observatory Munich (USM), Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679 Munich, Germany
5
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Giessenbachstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Received:
14
June
2023
Accepted:
29
September
2023
We study the kinematics of the recently discovered Corona Australis (CrA) chain of clusters by examining the 3D space motion of its young stars using Gaia DR3 and APOGEE-2 data. While we observe linear expansion between the clusters in the Cartesian XY directions, the expansion along Z exhibits a curved pattern. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a nonlinear velocity–position relation has been observed for stellar clusters. We propose a scenario to explain our findings, in which the observed gradient is caused by stellar feedback, accelerating the gas away from the Galactic plane. A traceback analysis confirms that the CrA star formation complex was located near the central clusters of the Scorpius Centaurus (Sco-Cen) OB association 10–15 Myr ago. It contains massive stars and thus offers a natural source of feedback. Based on the velocity of the youngest unbound CrA cluster, we estimate that a median number of about two supernovae would have been sufficient to inject the present-day kinetic energy of the CrA molecular cloud. This number agrees with that of recent studies. The head-tail morphology of the CrA molecular cloud further supports the proposed feedback scenario, in which a feedback force pushed the primordial cloud from the Galactic north, leading to the current separation of 100 pc from the center of Sco-Cen. The formation of spatially and temporally well-defined star formation patterns, such as the CrA chain of clusters, is likely a common process in massive star-forming regions.
Key words: stars: kinematics and dynamics / ISM: kinematics and dynamics / open clusters and associations: individual: Corona Australis
An interactive 3D figure associated to Fig. 1 is available at https://www.aanda.org.
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article is published in open access under the Subscribe to Open model. Subscribe to A&A to support open access publication.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.