"Completing the Puzzle: A High-Energy Perspective on Young Star Clusters and Their Environments"
ESO Star and Planet Formation Seminar
- Date: Apr 28, 2026
- Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Stefano Menchiari (IAA-CSIC)
- Location: ESO Garching
- Room: Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching)
Abstract:
Star clusters are the fundamental building blocks of Galaxies. The most young an massive ones host a high concentration of massive stars which, through their powerful stellar winds and eventual supernova explosions, inject enormous amounts of mechanical energy into the surrounding medium. This violent injection of power creates the ideal conditions for efficient particle acceleration, transforming these clusters into Galactic cosmic-ray factories. In recent years, gamma-rays observations have confirmed this high-energy side in many star clusters, with some even reaching the PeV (10^15 eV) regime, challenging our understanding of particle acceleration mechanisms. In this talk, I will review the implications of cosmic ray production in young star cluster: from how this shapes the gamma-ray and neutrino sky, to how sub-GeV particles can provide a significant source of ionization in the surrounding interstellar medium and nearby molecular clouds, influencing the chemical and dynamical evolution of the very sites where the next generation of stars is born. A full understanding of young star clusters as high-energy sources requires a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach, spanning from stellar evolution, to feedback processes, down to a deep comprehension of the Galactic population and its properties. In turn, high-energy observations potentially provide a powerful and complementary window on these systems, probing recent supernova activity and the ionization state of their environments, making the high-energy perspective a key tool in the broader astrophysical picture, and one that will be further advanced by the next generation of gamma-ray observatories such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory.
Star clusters are the fundamental building blocks of Galaxies. The most young an massive ones host a high concentration of massive stars which, through their powerful stellar winds and eventual supernova explosions, inject enormous amounts of mechanical energy into the surrounding medium. This violent injection of power creates the ideal conditions for efficient particle acceleration, transforming these clusters into Galactic cosmic-ray factories. In recent years, gamma-rays observations have confirmed this high-energy side in many star clusters, with some even reaching the PeV (10^15 eV) regime, challenging our understanding of particle acceleration mechanisms. In this talk, I will review the implications of cosmic ray production in young star cluster: from how this shapes the gamma-ray and neutrino sky, to how sub-GeV particles can provide a significant source of ionization in the surrounding interstellar medium and nearby molecular clouds, influencing the chemical and dynamical evolution of the very sites where the next generation of stars is born. A full understanding of young star clusters as high-energy sources requires a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach, spanning from stellar evolution, to feedback processes, down to a deep comprehension of the Galactic population and its properties. In turn, high-energy observations potentially provide a powerful and complementary window on these systems, probing recent supernova activity and the ionization state of their environments, making the high-energy perspective a key tool in the broader astrophysical picture, and one that will be further advanced by the next generation of gamma-ray observatories such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory.