Abstract
ABSTRACT We use photometric and kinematic data from Gaia DR2 to explore the structure of the star-forming region associated with the molecular cloud of Perseus. Apart from the two well-known clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333, we present five new clustered groups of young stars, which contain between 30 and 300 members, named Autochthe, Alcaeus, Heleus, Electryon, and Mestor. We demonstrate that these are co-moving groups of young stars, based on how the candidate members are distributed in position, proper motion, parallax, and colour–magnitude space. By comparing their colour–magnitude diagrams to isochrones, we show that they have ages between 1 and 5 Myr. Using 2MASS and WISE colours, we find that the fraction of stars with discs in each group ranges from 10 to ∼50 per cent. The youngest of the new groups is also associated with a reservoir of cold dust, according to the Planck map at 353 GHz. We compare the ages and proper motions of the five new groups to those of IC 348 and NGC 1333. Autochthe is clearly linked with NGC 1333 and may have formed in the same star formation event. The seven groups separate roughly into two sets that share proper motion, parallax, and age: Heleus, Electryon, and Mestor as the older set, and NGC 1333 and Autochthe as the younger set. Alcaeus is kinematically related to the younger set, but at a more advanced age, while the properties of IC 348 overlap with both sets. All older groups in this star-forming region are located at higher galactic latitude.
Highlights
D The Perseus star forming region is one of the largest associE ations of young stars within a distance of 500 pc
C these are co-moving groups of young stars, based on how the candidate members are distributed in S position, proper motion, parallax and colour-magnitude space. By comparing their colour-magnitude U diagrams to isochrones we show that they have ages between 1 and 5 Myr
In this paper we present the first results of a Gaia DR2-based study of the entire Perseus star forming region
Summary
D The Perseus star forming region is one of the largest associE ations of young stars within a distance of 500 pc. This comN plex encompasses two well-studied young clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333, and a population of distributed young stars, regions (Jørgensen et al 2006). The JCMT survey by Hatchell et al (2013) observed a restricted region around NGC 1333, to construct dust temperature maps using SCUBA-2 data. The three dimensional lation was provided by Luhman et al (2016), hereafter referred to as L16. They compile a list of members for both
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