Abstract

Young stellar associations hold a star formation record that can persist for millions of years, revealing the progression of star formation long after the dispersal of the natal cloud. Through the SPYGLASS program we are expanding the local star formation record by mapping the extensive and often poorly characterized network of clusters and associations in the solar neighborhood. Our recently published Gaia DR2-based study has already revealed dozens of new nearby groups and subgroups and discovered multiple features worthy of further investigation, including an age gradient in Sco-Cen indicative of sequential star formation spanning approximately 15 Myr and 60 pc. Many of these fascinating associations and features including Sco-Cen and recently discovered Cepheus Far North have already been the subject of recent spectroscopic observations which are providing measurements of youth indicators and radial velocities covering thousands of candidate members. We are using these new observations to provide regional age estimates and kinematic traceback, unraveling the star formation history of many nearby associations in even more exquisite detail. We are also working to expand our original search from 333 pc to 1 kpc through the upcoming Gaia DR3, and an early look at this expanded search using EDR3 is already available. In this presentation, we provide new developments from the SPYGLASS project, including both the large-scale view of the solar neighborhood provided by our top-level Gaia analyses and the targeted investigations revealing smaller scale patterns. Together, these investigations are providing an unprecedented view of the processes shaping local star formation.