The Ara OB 1a Association

TL;DR

The paper reviews the complex star formation processes and history in the nearby Ara OB 1a association, highlighting its diverse environments and the influence of past and ongoing stellar activity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of research over fifty years on the Ara OB 1a region, emphasizing its role in understanding triggered star formation.

Findings

Multiple generations of star formation observed

Evidence of past gas expansion influencing current structures

Diverse environments including clusters and clouds

Abstract

The Ara OB1a association is one of the closest sites where triggered star formation is visible for multiple generations of massive stars. At about 1.3 kpc distance, it contains complex environments including cleared young clusters, embedded infrared clusters, CO clouds with no evidence of star formation, and clouds with evidence of ongoing star formation. In this review we discuss the research on this region spanning the last half-century. It has been proposed that the current configuration is the result of an expanding wave of neutral gas set in motion between 10--40 million years ago in combination with photoionization from the current epoch.