Spatial distribution and clustering properties of the young stellar populations in the Carina Nebula complex and Car OB1

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR3 data to analyze the spatial distribution, clustering, and kinematics of young stars in the Carina Nebula and Car OB1, revealing new clusters, star candidates, and the association's expansion history.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive astrometric analysis of Car OB1, identifying new stellar clusters and high-mass star candidates, and elucidating the association's spatial and kinematic evolution.

Findings

Identified 15 stellar clusters, 4 of which are new.

Discovered 15 new O-type and 589 new B-type star candidates.

Found evidence of global expansion and a minimum age of 3-4 Myr for Car OB1.

Abstract

We use Gaia DR3 astrometry and photometry to analyze the spatial distribution of the young stellar populations and stellar clusters and to search for new OB star candidates in the Carina Nebula complex and the full extent of the Car OB1 association. We first performed a new census of high-mass stars in Car OB1 and compiled a comprehensive catalog of 517 stars with known spectral types that have Gaia DR3 parallaxes consistent with membership in the association. We applied the clustering algorithm DBSCAN on the Gaia data of the region to find stellar clusters, determine their distances and kinematics, and estimate ages. We also used Gaia astrometry and the additional astrophysical_parameters table to perform a spatially unbiased search for further high-mass members of Car OB1 over the full area of the association. Our DBSCAN analysis finds 15 stellar clusters and groups in Car OB1, four of which were not known before. Most clusters (80%) show signs of expansion or contraction, four of them with a >2$\sigma$ significance. We find a global expansion of the Car OB1 association and a kinematic traceback of the high-mass stars shows that the spatial extent of the association was at a minimum 3-4 Myr ago. Using astrophysical parameters by Gaia DR3, we identified 15 new O-type and 589 new B-type star candidates in Car OB1. The majority (>54%) of the high-mass stars constitute a non-clustered distributed stellar population. Based on our sample of high-mass stars, we estimate a total stellar population of at least ~8*10^4 stars in Car OB1. Our study is the first systematic astrometric analysis that covers the full spatial extent of the Car OB1 association, and it therefore substantially increases the knowledge of the distributed stellar population and spatial evolution of the entire association. Our results suggest suggests Car OB1 to be the most massive known star-forming complex in our Galaxy.