Exposing Star Formation through the spatial structure of young stellar objects

We construct a catalog of the smallest significant young stellar substructures, that we call NESTs, by systematically applying a robust clustering method to a sample of 39 star-forming regions (SFRs). These small and compact clumps of young stellar objects (YSOs) reveal the densest discrete modes of star formation in each SFR. A comparison of these stellar substructures with the distribution of massive stars and molecular gas allows us to discriminate major distinct SFR types