Stellar clusters in the Gaia era

TL;DR

This paper discusses the significance of stellar clusters in astrophysics, highlights the potential of Gaia data combined with ground-based surveys, and presents initial results from the Gaia-ESO survey as a preview of future research capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces the importance of Gaia data for studying stellar clusters and demonstrates how combining Gaia with ground-based surveys enhances scientific insights.

Findings

Gaia DR1 provides valuable initial data for stellar cluster analysis.

Ground-based surveys like Gaia-ESO complement Gaia data effectively.

Preliminary results showcase the potential of combined datasets for astrophysics.

Abstract

Stellar clusters are important for astrophysics in many ways, for instance as optimal tracers of the Galactic populations to which they belong or as one of the best test bench for stellar evolutionary models. Gaia DR1, with TGAS, is just skimming the wealth of exquisite information we are expecting from the more advanced catalogues, but already offers good opportunities and indicates the vast potentialities. Gaia results can be efficiently complemented by ground-based data, in particular by large spectroscopic and photometric surveys. Examples of some scientific results of the Gaia-ESO survey are presented, as a teaser for what will be possible once advanced Gaia releases and ground-based data will be combined.