# Untangling the Galaxy I: Local Structure and Star Formation History of the Milky Way

## TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR2 data and unsupervised machine learning to identify and analyze star groups within 1 kpc of the Sun, revealing their structures, ages, and implications for local galactic dynamics.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel application of machine learning to classify local stellar groups and uncovers their filamentary structures and age-related dynamical evolution.

## Key findings

- Identified new star clusters, associations, and co-moving groups within 1 kpc.
- Revealed filamentary, string-like structures aligned with the Galactic plane.
- Estimated dynamical heating timescale of approximately 300 Myr.

## Abstract

Gaia DR2 provides unprecedented precision in measurements of the distance and kinematics of stars in the solar neighborhood. Through applying unsupervised machine learning on DR2's 5-dimensional dataset (3d position + 2d velocity), we identify a number of clusters, associations, and co-moving groups within 1 kpc and $|b|<30^\circ$ (many of which have not been previously known). We estimate their ages with the precision of $\sim$0.15 dex. Many of these groups appear to be filamentary or string-like, oriented in parallel to the Galactic plane, and some span hundreds of pc in length. Most of these string lack a central cluster, indicating that their filamentary structure is primordial, rather than the result of tidal stripping or dynamical processing. The youngest strings ($<$100 Myr) are orthogonal to the Local Arm. The older ones appear to be remnants of several other arm-like structures that cannot be presently traced by dust and gas. The velocity dispersion measured from the ensemble of groups and strings increase with age, suggesting a timescale for dynamical heating of $\sim$300 Myr. This timescale is also consistent with the age at which the population of strings begins to decline, while the population in more compact groups continues to increase, suggesting that dynamical processes are disrupting the weakly bound string populations, leaving only individual clusters to be identified at the oldest ages. These data shed a new light on the local galactic structure and a large scale cloud collapse.