Speaker
Description
Stars do not form in isolation - they are part of stellar clusters, which are themselves often part of larger stellar associations (OB associations) of families of clusters. These stellar populations are born within molecular clouds, the coldest and densest parts of the interstellar medium in galaxies. A key aspect of modern star formation research is our growing ability to map the molecular gas and the star-forming regions in three dimensions within our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Thanks to the astrometric and photometric data from the Gaia space mission, combined with complementary data (radio, submillimeter, stellar spectra, radial velocities), we can now reconstruct the three-dimensional architecture of the solar neighborhood with unprecedented detail. I will highlight recent results from 3D dust maps and open cluster catalogues that reveal the spatial distribution and kinematic structure of nearby star-forming regions, offering new insights into how molecular clouds are organized within the Milky Way's spiral structure. I will further talk about the early evolution of stellar systems that emerge from the molecular clouds and the formation, expansion, and eventual dispersal of young stellar clusters and OB associations. I will discuss the role of stellar feedback (winds, radiation, supernova explosions), and how such feedback might shape the parent cloud and influence the efficiency and timescale of star formation, which could ultimately govern the bound or unbound nature of the resulting stellar population. With this talk I will set the stage of this symposium by establishing the large-scale context of the star formation process.
