Disentangling Accretion Rate–Age Dependence from Mass and Bias Effects

Develop a methodology to disentangle the temporal dependence of the mass accretion rate on stellar age from confounding effects of stellar mass and observational biases in young stellar populations.

Background

The paper stresses that snapshot observations can bias derived quantities such as mass accretion rates. A decadal, homogeneous spectroscopic survey would enable robust temporal characterization across ages and masses while accounting for selection and cadence biases.

References

Here are the major open questions that the next big telescope developed by ESO will address through conducting a decadal spectroscopic survey of YSOs: How to unravel the temporal dependence of the accretion rate on stellar age, and distinguish it from the effects of stellar mass and observational biases.

— Toward the time-domain spectroscopic study of the dynamic life of stars: from accretion to magnetic activity  (2512.12453 - Majidi et al., 13 Dec 2025) in Key Questions