The chronology of star formation in NGC 6530. The study: “Wide-area photometric and astrometric (Gaia DR2) study of the young cluster NGC 6530” of F. Damiani (INAF-OAPA) recently appeared on A&A

Stars form from the gravitational collapse of large interstellar clouds. During the process, the clouds fragment in smaller clouds, forming clusters and associations of stars counting from few tens to several hundred thousands stars. The star formation process typically is not a monolithic process, e.g. with a single large event of star formation occurring rapidly and forming all the stars

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X-rays from Cygnus. The paper: “X-ray spectral characterization of the young Cygnus OB2 population” of E. Flaccomio (INAF-OAPA) accepted for publication by ApJS

OB associations are objects of great importance, since they contain a rich population of OB stars. Despite their paucity, OB stars have a strong impact on the evolution of their parental clouds, nearby stars, and the whole Galaxy. For instance, their intense UV emission affects the evolution of the parental cloud and the star formation process in it, sometimes triggering

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Star formation in the Vela. Published on A&A the study: “Low-mass star formation and subclustering in the H II regions RCW 32, 33, and 27 of the Vela Molecular Ridge. A photometric diagnostics for identifying M-type stars” of L. Prisinzano (INAF-OAPA)

In the Milky Way one of the main modes of star formation is in stellar clusters, which remain associated with their parental cloud for about 5-10 million years. This makes the star forming regions complex targets, characterised by rich stellar populations packed into small regions, sometime even with massive stars, and clouds whose morphology and properties are affected by the

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Low mass stars in the OB association Scorpius OB1

OB associations are groups of massive stars (with spectral type O and B, more massive than 3.5 solar masses) which typically cover wide regions in the sky. The presence of such a rich population of massive stars suggests the presence of even a larger population of low-mass stars. There exists, in fact, a relation between the number of stars in

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Il sito NASA/Chandra riporta lo studio OAPA/CfA sulla Nebulosa dell’Aquila e NGC6611

di Mario Giuseppe Guarcello    ( segui mguarce)     È stato pubblicato sul sito del satellite Chandra della NASA un articolo (link) interamente dedicato agli studi INAF-OAPA/CfA della regione di formazione stellare nota come Nebulosa dell’Aquila o M16, contenente l’ammasso stellare NGC 6611, realizzato con vari telescopi operativi in diverse bande dello spettro elettromagnetico, tra cui il satellite Chandra della

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Diffuse X-ray emission in massive star formin region. Published on ApJS “Diffuse X-ray emission in the Cygnus OB2 association” of J. F. Albacete-Colombo (Universidad de Rıo Negro)

During their short existence lasting only few million years, massive stars (more massive than 8 solar masses with spectral type O and B-early) strongly affect the surrounding environment thanks to their intense UV radiation and stellar winds. A single O star, in fact, can loose about 10-6 solar masses of gas in a wind reaching velocities of 1600–2500 km s−1 (Stevens & Hartwell, 2003).

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Star formation history in Canis Major. Recently published by A&A “Star formation history of Canis Major OB1” of T. Santos-Silva

Stars in several star forming regions are observed with a spread in age. This support the idea that star formation is a “slow” process which can propagate across a molecular cloud over million of years (as suggested, for instance, by the Palla & Stahler 2000 study), while several authors have instead suggested that star formation is a “fast” process (e.g.

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Two large projects (GES and CSI-2264) join forces: The study “The Gaia-ESO Survey and CSI 2264: Substructures, disks, and sequential star formation in the young open cluster NGC 2264” of L. Venuti (INAF-OAPA) recently published by A&A

The study of star-forming regions of our Galaxy is one of the main research topic of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. This because they can provide crucial information on how large molecular clouds collapse and form stars, on the early stellar evolutionary stages, on the formation of planetary systems, the formation and dispersion of protoplanetary disks, and the history and

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