All Outputs (95)

The past, present and future of observations of externally irradiated disks (2025)
Journal Article
Allen, M., Anania, R., Andersen, M., Aru, M.-L., Ballabio, G., Ballering, N. P., Beccari, G., Berné, O., Bik, A., Boyden, R., Coleman, G., Díaz-Berrios, J., Eatson, J. W., Frediani, J., Forbrich, J., Gkimisi, K., Goicoechea, J. R., Gupta, S., Guarcello, M. G., Haworth, T. J., …Zeidler, P. (2025). The past, present and future of observations of externally irradiated disks. Open Journal of Astrophysics, 8, https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.137538

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the community studying the effect of ultraviolet radiation environment, predominantly set by OB stars, on protoplanetary disc evolution and planet formation. This is important because a significant fracti... Read More about The past, present and future of observations of externally irradiated disks.

The infrared counterpart and proper motion of magnetar SGR 0501+4516 (2025)
Journal Article
Chrimes, A. A., Levan, A. J., Lyman, J. D., Borghese, A., Dhillon, V. S., Esposito, P., Fraser, M., Fruchter, A. S., Götz, D., Hounsell, R. A., Israel, G. L., Kouveliotou, C., Mereghetti, S., Mignani, R. P., Perna, R., Rea, N., Skillen, I., Steeghs, D., Tanvir, N. R., Wiersema, K., …Zane, S. (2025). The infrared counterpart and proper motion of magnetar SGR 0501+4516. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 696(April 2025), Article A127. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453479

Aims. Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are highly magnetised neutron stars (magnetars) notable for their gamma-ray and X-ray outbursts. We used near-infrared (NIR) imaging of SGR 0501+4516 in the days, weeks, and years after its 2008 outburst to character... Read More about The infrared counterpart and proper motion of magnetar SGR 0501+4516.

A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way (2025)
Journal Article
Quintana, A. L., Wright, N. J., & García, J. M. (in press). A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 538(3), 1367–1383. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf083

OB stars are crucial for our understanding of Galactic structure, star formation, stellar feedback and multiplicity. In this paper we have compiled a census of all OB stars within 1 kpc of the Sun. We performed evolutionary and atmospheric model fits... Read More about A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way.

EWOCS-III: JWST observations of the supermassive star cluster Westerlund 1 (2025)
Journal Article
Guarcello, M. G., Almendros-Abad, V., Lovell, J. B., Monsch, K., Mužić, K., Martínez-Galarza, J. R., Drake, J. J., Anastasopoulou, K., Andersen, M., Argiroffi, C., Bayo, A., Bonito, R., Capela, D., Damiani, F., Gennaro, M., Ginsburg, A., Grebel, E. K., Hora, J. L., Moraux, E., Najarro, F., …Zeidler, P. (2025). EWOCS-III: JWST observations of the supermassive star cluster Westerlund 1. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 693, Article A120. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202452150

Context. The typically large distances, extinction, and crowding of Galactic supermassive star clusters (stellar clusters more massive than 104 M⊙) have so far hampered the identification of their very low mass members, required to extend our underst... Read More about EWOCS-III: JWST observations of the supermassive star cluster Westerlund 1.

Gaia DR3 reveals the complex dynamical evolution within star clusters (2024)
Journal Article
Viscasillas Vázquez, C., Magrini, L., Miret-Roig, N., Wright, N., Alves, J., Spina, L., Church, R., Tautvaišienė, G., & Randich, S. (2024). Gaia DR3 reveals the complex dynamical evolution within star clusters. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 689, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450573

Context. Star clusters, composed of stars born from the same molecular cloud, serve as invaluable natural laboratories for understanding the fundamental processes governing stellar formation and evolution.

Aims. This study aims to investigate corr... Read More about Gaia DR3 reveals the complex dynamical evolution within star clusters.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: 3D dynamics of young groups and clusters from GES and Gaia EDR3 (2024)
Journal Article
Wright, N. J., Jeffries, R. D., Jackson, R. J., Sacco, G. G., Arnold, B., Franciosini, E., Gilmore, G., Gonneau, A., Morbidelli, L., Prisinzano, L., Randich, S., & Worley, C. C. (2024). The Gaia-ESO Survey: 3D dynamics of young groups and clusters from GES and Gaia EDR3. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 533(1), 705–728. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1806

We present the first large-scale 3D kinematic study of ∼2700 spectroscopically-confirmed young stars (< 20 Myr) in 18 star clusters and OB associations (hereafter groups) from the combination of Gaia astrometry and Gaia-ESO Survey spectroscopy... Read More about The Gaia-ESO Survey: 3D dynamics of young groups and clusters from GES and Gaia EDR3.

Kinematic substructure in star clusters constrains star cluster formation (2024)
Journal Article
Arnold, B., & Wright, N. J. (2024). Kinematic substructure in star clusters constrains star cluster formation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 531(1), 1191–1202. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1236

The spatial-kinematic structure of 48 young star clusters and associations is investigated. Moran’s I statistic is used to quantify the degree of kinematic substructure in each region, and the results are compared to those expected assuming the hiera... Read More about Kinematic substructure in star clusters constrains star cluster formation.

Constraining Stellar Rotation at the Zero-age Main Sequence with TESS (2024)
Journal Article
Douglas, S. T., Cargile, P. A., Matt, S. P., Breimann, A. A., Pérez Chávez, J. A., Huang, C. X., Wright, N. J., & Zhou, G. (2024). Constraining Stellar Rotation at the Zero-age Main Sequence with TESS. Astrophysical Journal, 962(1), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad0fe3

The zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) is a critical phase for stellar angular momentum evolution, as stars transition from contraction-dominated spin-up to magnetic wind-dominated spin-down. We present the first robust observational constraints on rotati... Read More about Constraining Stellar Rotation at the Zero-age Main Sequence with TESS.

EWOCS-I: The catalog of X-ray sources in Westerlund 1 from the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (2023)
Journal Article
Guarcello, M., Flaccomio, E., Albacete-Colombo, J., Almendros-Abad, V., Anastasopoulou, K., Andersen, M., Argiroffi, C., Bayo, A., Bartlett, E., Bastian, N., De Becker, M., Best, W., Bonito, R., Borghese, A., Calzetti, D., Castellanos, R., Cecchi-Pestellini, C., Clark, S., Clarke, C., Coti Zelati, F., …Zeidler, P. (2023). EWOCS-I: The catalog of X-ray sources in Westerlund 1 from the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 682, Article A49

Context. With a mass exceeding several 104 M and a rich and dense population of massive stars, supermassive young star clusters represent the most massive star-forming environment that is dominated by the feedback from massive stars and gravitational... Read More about EWOCS-I: The catalog of X-ray sources in Westerlund 1 from the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey.

X-Ray Spectral Characterization of the Young Cygnus OB2 Population (2023)
Journal Article
Flaccomio, E., Albacete-Colombo, J. F., Drake, J. J., Guarcello, M. G., Kashyap, V., Wright, N. J., Briggs, K., Ercolano, B., McCollough, M., & Sciortino, S. (2023). X-Ray Spectral Characterization of the Young Cygnus OB2 Population. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd66

We analyze the X-ray spectra of the ∼8000 sources detected in the Cygnus OB2 Chandra Legacy Survey (this focus issue), with the goals of characterizing the coronal plasma of the young low-mass stars in the region and estimating their intrinsic X-ray... Read More about X-Ray Spectral Characterization of the Young Cygnus OB2 Population.

Optical and Infrared Counterparts of the X-Ray Sources Detected in the Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey (2023)
Journal Article
Guarcello, M. G., Drake, J. J., Wright, N. J., Naylor, T., Flaccomio, E., Kashyap, V. L., & García-Alvarez, D. (2023). Optical and Infrared Counterparts of the X-Ray Sources Detected in the Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd64

The young massive OB association Cygnus OB2, in the Cygnus X complex, is the closest (∼1400 pc) star-forming region to the Sun hosting thousands of young low-mass stars and up to 1000 OB stars, among which are some of the most massive stars known in... Read More about Optical and Infrared Counterparts of the X-Ray Sources Detected in the Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey.

Simulating the Sensitivity to Stellar Point Sources of Chandra X-Ray Observations (2023)
Journal Article
Wright, N. J., Drake, J. J., Guarcello, M. G., Kashyap, V. L., & Zezas, A. (2023). Simulating the Sensitivity to Stellar Point Sources of Chandra X-Ray Observations. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd63

The Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey is a wide and deep X-ray survey of the nearby and massive Cygnus OB2 association. The survey has detected ∼8000 X-ray sources, the majority of which are pre-main-sequence X-ray-emitting young stars in the associat... Read More about Simulating the Sensitivity to Stellar Point Sources of Chandra X-Ray Observations.

The Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey: Design and X-Ray Point-source Catalog (2023)
Journal Article
Wright, N. J., Drake, J. J., Guarcello, M. G., Aldcroft, T. L., Kashyap, V. L., Damiani, F., DePasquale, J., & Fruscione, A. (2023). The Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey: Design and X-Ray Point-source Catalog. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd62

The Cygnus OB2 association is the largest concentration of young and massive stars within 2 kpc of the Sun, including an estimated ∼65 O-type stars and hundreds of OB stars. The Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey is a large imaging program undertaken w... Read More about The Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey: Design and X-Ray Point-source Catalog.

Diffuse X-Ray Emission in the Cygnus OB2 Association (2023)
Journal Article
Albacete-Colombo, J. F., Drake, J. J., Flaccomio, E., Wright, N. J., Kashyap, V., Guarcello, M. G., Briggs, K., Drew, J. E., Fenech, D. M., Micela, G., McCollough, M., Prinja, R. K., Schneider, N., Sciortino, S., & Vink, J. S. (2023). Diffuse X-Ray Emission in the Cygnus OB2 Association. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd65

We present a large-scale study of diffuse X-ray emission in the nearby massive stellar association Cygnus OB2 as part of the Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Program. We used 40 Chandra X-ray ACIS-I observations covering ∼1.0 deg2. After removing 7924 point... Read More about Diffuse X-Ray Emission in the Cygnus OB2 Association.

The Statistical Uncertainties on X-Ray Flux and Spectral Parameters from Chandra ACIS-I Observations of Faint Sources: Application to the Cygnus OB2 Association (2023)
Journal Article
Albacete-Colombo, J. F., Flaccomio, E., Drake, J. J., Wright, N. J., Guarcello, M., & Kashyap, V. (2023). The Statistical Uncertainties on X-Ray Flux and Spectral Parameters from Chandra ACIS-I Observations of Faint Sources: Application to the Cygnus OB2 Association. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd69

We investigate the uncertainties of fitted X-ray model parameters and fluxes for relatively faint Chandra ACIS-I source spectra. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are employed to construct a large set of 150,000 fake X-ray spectra in the low photon count... Read More about The Statistical Uncertainties on X-Ray Flux and Spectral Parameters from Chandra ACIS-I Observations of Faint Sources: Application to the Cygnus OB2 Association.

Photoevaporation and Close Encounters: How the Environment around Cygnus OB2 Affects the Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks (2023)
Journal Article
Guarcello, M. G., Drake, J. J., Wright, N. J., Albacete-Colombo, J. F., Clarke, C., Ercolano, B., Flaccomio, E., Kashyap, V., Micela, G., Naylor, T., Schneider, N., Sciortino, S., & Vink, J. S. (2023). Photoevaporation and Close Encounters: How the Environment around Cygnus OB2 Affects the Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 13. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd67

In our Galaxy, star formation occurs in a variety of environments, with a large fraction of stars formed in clusters hosting massive stars. OB stars have an important feedback on the evolution of protoplanetary disks orbiting around nearby young star... Read More about Photoevaporation and Close Encounters: How the Environment around Cygnus OB2 Affects the Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks.

Classification of Chandra X-Ray Sources in Cygnus OB2 (2023)
Journal Article
Kashyap, V. L., Guarcello, M. G., Wright, N. J., Drake, J. J., Flaccomio, E., Aldcroft, T. L., Albacete Colombo, J. F., Briggs, K., Damiani, F., Drew, J. E., Martin, E. L., Micela, G., Naylor, T., & Sciortino, S. (2023). Classification of Chandra X-Ray Sources in Cygnus OB2. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 269(1), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd68

We have devised a predominantly Naive Bayes−based method to classify X-ray sources detected by Chandra in the Cygnus OB2 association into members, foreground objects, and background objects. We employ a variety of X-ray, optical, and infrared charact... Read More about Classification of Chandra X-Ray Sources in Cygnus OB2.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: empirical estimates of stellar ages from lithium equivalent widths (eagles) (2023)
Journal Article
Jeffries, R. D., Jackson, R. J., Wright, N. J., Weaver, G., Gilmore, G., Randich, S., Bragaglia, A., Korn, A. J., Smiljanic, R., Biazzo, K., Casey, A. R., Frasca, A., Gonneau, A., Guiglion, G., Morbidelli, L., Prisinzano, L., Sacco, G. G., Tautvaisiene, G., Worley, C. C., & Zaggia, S. (2023). The Gaia-ESO Survey: empirical estimates of stellar ages from lithium equivalent widths (eagles). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 523(1), 802-824. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1293

We present an empirical model of age-dependent photospheric lithium depletion, calibrated using a large homogeneously analysed sample of 6200 stars in 52 open clusters, with ages from 2 to 6000 Myr and -0.3 < [Fe/H] < 0.2, observed in the Gaia-ESO sp... Read More about The Gaia-ESO Survey: empirical estimates of stellar ages from lithium equivalent widths (eagles).

Mapping the distribution of OB stars and associations in Auriga (2023)
Journal Article
Quintana, A. L., Wright, N. J., & Jeffries, R. D. (2023). Mapping the distribution of OB stars and associations in Auriga. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 522(2), 3124-3137. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1160

OB associations are important probes of recent star formation and Galactic structure. In this study, we focus on the Auriga constellation, an important region of star formation due to its numerous young stars, star-forming regions, and open clusters.... Read More about Mapping the distribution of OB stars and associations in Auriga.

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation (2023)
Journal Article
Jin, S., Trager, S. C., Dalton, G. B., Aguerri, J. A. L., Drew, J. E., Falcón-Barroso, J., Gänsicke, B. T., Hill, V., Iovino, A., Pieri, M. M., Poggianti, B. M., Smith, D. J. B., Vallenari, A., Abrams, D. C., Aguado, D. S., Antoja, T., Aragón-Salamanca, A., Ascasibar, Y., Babusiaux, C., Balcells, M., …Zurita, C. (2024). The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530(3), 2688-2730. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad557

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, saw first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-deg field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre pos... Read More about The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation.