Searching for star formation towards the Eos molecular cloud

The Eos cloud, recently discovered in the far ultraviolet via H₂ fluorescence, is one of the nearest known dark molecular clouds to the Sun, with a distance spanning from ∼94–136 pc. However, with a mass (∼5.5 × 103 M_.) just under 40 per cent that of star forming clouds like Taurus and evidence for net molecular dissociation, its evolutionary and star forming status is uncertain. We use Gaia data to investigate whether there is evidence for a young stellar population that may have formed from the Eos cloud. Comparing isochrones and pre-main sequence evolutionary models there is no clear young stellar population in the region. While there are a small number of <10 Myr stars, that population is statistically indistinguishable from those in similar search volumes at other Galactic latitudes. We also find no unusual spatial or kinematic clustering toward the Eos cloud over distances 70–150 pc. Overall, we conclude that the Eos cloud has most likely not undergone any recent substantial star formation and further study of the dynamics of the cloud is required to determine whether it will do so in the future.