New Coronae and Stellar Associations Revealed by a Clustering Analysis of the Solar Neighborhood

TL;DR

This study uses advanced clustering analysis on 6D Gaia data to discover new stellar groups and coronae near the Sun, revealing structures previously hidden due to their age and low density, with implications for exoplanet research.

Contribution

It introduces a density-based clustering method incorporating full 6D kinematic data to identify new stellar associations and coronae in the solar neighborhood.

Findings

Discovered over 50 known and new stellar groups within 200 pc.

Identified 32 new candidate stellar streams aged 100 Myr-3 Gyr.

Revealed structures within 60 pc, aiding in planetary-mass object studies.

Abstract

We present the results of a density-based clustering analysis of the 6-dimensional XYZ Galactic positions and UVW space velocities of nearby ($\leq$ 200 pc) Gaia EDR3 stars with radial velocities using HDBSCAN, in opposition to previous studies that only included positions and tangential velocities. Among the 241 recovered clusters, we identify more than 50 known associations, 32 new candidate stellar streams aged 100 Myr-3 Gyr, 9 extensions of known Theia groups uncovered by Kounkel & Covey (2019), and 8 newly recognized coronae around nearby open clusters. Three confirmed exoplanet-hosting stars and three more TESS transiting exoplanet candidates are part of the new groups discovered here, including TOI-1807 and TOI-2076 from Hedges et al. (2021) that were suspected to belong to a yet unidentified moving group. The new groups presented here were not previously recognized because of their older ages, low spatial density, and projection effects that spread out the tangential velocities of their nearby co-moving members. Several newly identified structures reach distances within 60 pc of the Sun, providing new grounds for the identification of isolated planetary-mass objects. The nearest member of the newly recognized corona of Volans-Carina is V419 Hya, a known young debris disk star at a distance of 22 pc. This study outlines the importance of further characterization of young associations in the immediate Solar neighborhood, which will provide new laboratories for the precise age calibration of nearby stars, exoplanets and substellar objects.