Fundamental Stellar Astrophysics in the Gaia Era: A New Understanding of Local Stellar Populations
Mon, July 20, 2020
We begin with an overview of the precision stellar astrophysics enabled by the confluence of Gaia parallaxes with large-scale photometric and spectroscopic surveys. We then give examples of the new understanding of local Galactic structure that this has enabled, including in particular the detailed history of canonical star-forming regions, and the discovery of "stellar strings" reflecting the local conditions of recent star formation. We conclude with the example of a newly discovered, young, triple star system including an eclipsing binary, that provides prima facie evidence supporting the new "stellar strings" paradigm.