The extended population associated with W40

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia eDR3 data and spectroscopy to identify a large, older stellar population associated with the W40 HII region, refining its distance and revealing its star formation history and structure.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed astrometric and spectroscopic analysis of the extended population around W40, establishing its distance, age, and relation to the central cluster.

Findings

Distance to W40 is 502 pc ± 4 pc.

Extended population is older (~3 Myr) than the central cluster (<1 Myr).

The region's star formation history spans several million years.

Abstract

W40 is a heavily obscured bipolar HII region projected in the direction of the Aquila Rift and ionized by hot stars in a central, partly embedded cluster. The study of the cluster and its surroundings has been greatly hampered thus far by the strong extinction in the region. We use the Gaia eDR3 catalog to establish astrometric membership criteria based on the population of the W40 central cluster, reassess the distance of the region, and identify in this way new members, both inside and outside the cluster. We obtain visible spectroscopy in the red spectral region to classify both known and new members, complemented with Gaia and Spitzer photometry to assess the evolutionary status of the stellar population. We derive a high-confidence geometric distance to the W40 region of 502 pc $\pm$ 4 pc and confirm the presence of a comoving extended population of stars at the same distance, spreading over the whole projected area of the HII region and beyond. Spectral classifications are presented for 21 members of the W40 region, 10 of them belonging to the central cluster. One of the newly identified B stars in the extended population is clearly interacting with the shell surrounding the HII region, giving rise to a small arc-shaped nebula that traces a bow shock. The infrared excess properties suggest that the extended population is significantly older ($\sim 3$ Myr) than the W40 central cluster ($< 1$ Myr). The area currently occupied by the W40 HII region and its surroundings has a history of star formation extending at least several million years in the past, of which the formation of the W40 central cluster and the subsequent HII region is one of the latest episodes. The newly determined distance suggests that W40 is behind, and physically detached from, a pervasive large dust layer which is some 60 pc foreground to it as determined by previous studies.