Catherine Zucker

CV

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Publications

Check out my ADS library for a complete list of my publications. Here are some of the highlights...

The Solar Neighborhood in the Age of Gaia

We review how Gaia has transformed our understanding of the 3D spatial distribution of gas, dust, and young stars within the local Milky Way.

Disconnecting the Dots: Re-Examining the Nature of Stellar Strings in the Milky Way

The Gaia mission has given rise to a plethora of new stellar structures, including a new class of highly extended objects called stellar strings. We explore the spatial, kinematic, and chemical composition of strings to demonstrate that these newfound structures are largely inconsistent with being physical objects whose members share a common origin.

Star Formation Near the Sun is Driven by Expansion of the Local Bubble

Reconstructing the history of our Galactic neighborhood using new spatial and dynamic constraints enabled by Gaia, we find that the expansion of the Local Bubble is responsible for the formation of all young stars within 200 pc of the Sun. Check out our website for full details, or this YouTube video for a preview.

On the Three-Dimensional Structure of Local Molecular Clouds

Leveraging a new 3D dust map from Leike et al. 2020, we characterize the 3D spatial structure of nearby star-forming at 1 pc resolution for the first time, and find a characteristic shape of molecular clouds that could be indiciate a thermal or chemical transition of the gas. Check out the 3D Interactive Gallery of Local Clouds to view our results in more detail.

A Galactic Scale Gas Wave in the Solar Neighborhood

Using the new catalog of accurate distances to local molecular clouds from Zucker+2020, we discover a 2.7 kpc long undulating wave of stellar nurseries -- the largest of its kind -- which redefines the shape of the Local Arm in our solar neighborhood. Check out our website for more details, including this interactive visualization in WorldWide Telescope and this one in plot.ly

A Compendium of Distances to Molecular Clouds in the Star Formation Handbook

We determine distances to all molecular clouds in the Star Formation Handbook (Reipurth 2008a,b). Comparison with "gold standard" maser parallax distances towards the same star-forming regions indicates we are producing results consistent to within 10%, with no systematic offsets. Check out our new 3D interactive figure of molecular clouds in our solar neighborhood!

Synthetic Large-Scale Galactic Filaments -- on their Formation, Physical Properties, and Resemblance to Observations

We post-process AREPO simulations to determine the extent to which the largest-scale filaments in the interstellar medium of our Galaxy can be explained by Galactic dynamics alone. Utilizing tools previously applied to observations in Zucker, Battersby, & Goodman 2018, we analyze the properties of these filaments as a function of projection effects and Galactic environment (correspondence with the arm or interarm regions). We find that large-scale filaments are intrinsically rare (~ 1000 expected to be observed in our Galaxy) and that their properties are driven by Galactic environment.

A Large Catalog of Accurate Distances to Local Molecular Clouds: The Gaia DR2 Edition

We uniformly determine distances to most major clouds within 2 kpc of the sun, using a combination of stellar photometry and Gaia DR2 astrometry. We provide interactive pixelated distance maps for 27 clouds, in many cases revealing evidence of distance gradients and/or multiple components.

Mapping Distances across the Perseus Molecular Cloud Using CO Observations, Stellar Photometry, and Gaia DR2 Parallax Measurements

We present a a new technique to map velocities to distances in molecular clouds, and apply it to the local Perseus Molecular Cloud. We find that the velocity gradient of 5 km/s across Perseus maps to a distance gradient of about 25 pc. We are planning to extend the technique to the full Galactic plane, in order to trace gas flows in 4D in diverse environments across the Galactic disk.

RadFil: A Python Package for Building and Fitting Radial Profiles for Interstellar Filaments

We have created an open source python package called RadFil that makes it easy to build and fit radial density profiles for interstellar filaments. Check out my GitHub repository for a full working example of the code.

The Physical Properties of Large-scale Galactic Filaments

We present the first uniform, systematic comparison of the physical properties of the largest (~ 100 pc) scale filaments in the Milky Way. We find that the longest and skinniest of these filaments (Galactic "Bones"; see Zucker et al. 2015) show the most potential for tracing spiral structure, while other catalogs could be large concentrations of molecular gas (giant molecular clouds, core complexes).

Hierarchical Formation in Action: Characterizing Accelerated Galaxy Evolution in Compact Groups using Whole-Sky WISE Data

We present a catalog of WISE mid-IR photometry for 163 compact groups -- dense associations of three or more bright galaxies that undergo frequent interaction. Compact groups undergo a rapid transition from active star formation to quiescence, and we characterize a large sample of these "transition" galaxies.

The Skeleton of the Milky Way

We present a new class of interstellar filaments in the Milky Way -- Galactic "Bones". These filaments are all long and skinny mid-IR extinction features, which lie parallel and in close proximity to the Galactic plane, and to known spiral arms. New numerical simulations (Zucker, Smith, & Goodman 2019) show these filaments may form in the spiral potential wells of our Galaxy, and could be useful for tracing Galactic structure.

Press

A New Map of the Sun’s Local Bubble

At the edge of a vast region devoid of gas and dust, scientists find an explanation for how all nearby star formation began.

Booms and a bubble: How supernovas shaped our galactic neighborhood

New research reconstructs a key part of our galaxy’s evolutionary history, offering an explanation for why Earth occupies a part of the Milky Way galaxy that is relatively empty.

A thousand-light-year wide bubble around the Sun was blown by the ghosts of long-dead stars

Local Bubble carved by supernova beginning 14 million years ago.

Vast Cosmic Bubble Around the Sun Identified as Source of Baby Stars

New effort using data from European space telescope shows stars form on the edges of a giant void in our corner of the Milky Way

Gigantic Cavity in Space Sheds New Light on How Stars Form

Astronomers have discovered a humongous cavity in space while mapping interstellar dust. The sphere-shaped phenomenon may explain how supernovae lead to star formation.

Astronomers discover mysterious 500-light-year-wide cavity in space: "absolutely shocking"

Astronomers have discovered a gigantic cavity in space while studying 3D maps of nearby star-forming clouds of gas and dust.

How Do Galaxies Get Into Formation?

Segment Transcript IRA FLATOW: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was a cosmic battle between hydrogen and its electrons. By removing the electrons, the atoms were being stripped of their negative charge. This event would end a period that astronomers called the Cosmic Dark Ages.

Astronomers discover huge gaseous wave holding Milky Way's newest stars

Astronomers have discovered a gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas where newborn stars are forged over a 50 million billion mile stretch of the Milky Way. The gaseous structure, which holds more mass than 3m suns, runs directly behind our solar system as viewed from the heart of the galaxy, but has eluded observation until now.

The giant wave of gas discovered near the Sun in the Milky Way | The Radcliffe Wave

Announced on 7th January at the 235th American Astronomical Society Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, astronomers have found a giant wave of gas clouds very near ...

Largest gaseous structure ever seen in our galaxy is discovered

The new, 3D map shows our galactic neighborhood in a new light, giving researchers a revised view of the Milky Way and opening the door to other major discoveries. "We don't know what causes this shape, but it could be like a ripple in a pond, as if something extraordinarily massive landed in our galaxy," said Alves.

Interactive Visualizations

The Local Bubble and our Galactic Neighborhood (Zucker et al. 2022)

3D Cloud Structure (Zucker et al. 2021)

The Perseus-Taurus Supershell (Bialy et al. 2021)

The Radcliffe Wave (Alves et al. 2020)

Allsky (Speagle et al. 2023)