A Scattered Star Group in the Orion A Region of the Milky Way

Abstract

Using Gaia DR3 data, we identified an extended a ~60 pc group of stars sharing common motion but scattered in space, including from 150 to 300 probable members, named Group V. It can be associated with a group identified by Getman et al. (2019) and by Jerabkova et al. (2019) as a relic of a gas filament, traced by the mutual position of stars after the gas is swept out. We estimate its age to be approximately 16 million years. A combination of methods is applied to select probable members of Group V. We discuss the kinematic characteristics of the stars of Group V and the controversial clues they provide for understanding its nature. Due to the vicinity of a number of open clusters in the space, differentiating between members of the group and of the clusters is problematic, and mutual contamination is inevitable. The pair of clusters Gulliver 6 and UBC 17b is wrapped inside Group V but differs from it in kinematics.

Keywords

• star clusters
• space missions
• Gaia
• Milky Way
• Orion A