We study the temporal and spatial distribution of star formation rates in four well-studied star-forming regions in local molecular clouds ( MCs ) : Taurus , Perseus , \rho Ophiuchi , and Orion A .
Using published mass and age estimates for young stellar objects in each system , we show that the rate of star formation over the last 10 Myrs has been accelerating and is ( roughly ) consistent with a t ^ { 2 } power law .
This is in line with previous studies of the star formation history of molecular clouds and with recent theoretical studies .
We further study the clustering of star formation in the Orion Nebula Cluster ( ONC ) .
We examine the distribution of young stellar objects as a function of their age by computing an effective half-light radius for these young stars subdivided into age bins .
We show that the distribution of young stellar objects is broadly consistent with the star formation being entirely localized within the central region .
We also find a slow radial expansion of the newly formed stars at a velocity of v = 0.17 { km s } ^ { -1 } , which is roughly the sound speed of the cold molecular gas .
This strongly suggests the dense structures that form stars persist much longer than the local dynamical time .
We argue that this structure is quasi-static in nature and is likely the result of the density profile approaching an attractor solution as suggested by recent analytic and numerical analysis .