How do stars form? From cold gas to hot bubbles
DIPC Seminars
- Speaker
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Mélanie Chevance, Heidelberg University, Germany
- When
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2021/11/10
12:30 - Place
- Hybrid Seminar, Donostia International Physics Center
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
Galaxies are in constant evolution, driven by the cycle of matter within them:
gas clouds assemble and collapse, stars form within them, matter and energy
are redistributed in the galaxy through stellar feedback and turbulence. The
physical processes driving this cycle occur on small scales but govern the
evolution of entire galaxies. In turn, the large-scale evolution of galaxies
across space and time directly affects the environment from which stars form.
It is one of the big unanswered questions in modern astrophysics which
processes drive this multi-scale cycle and what its quantitative
characteristics are. I will present the first systematic characterisation of
the evolutionary timeline between molecular gas clouds, stars and feedback in
galaxies. I will show that star formation is fast and inefficient: gas clouds
are quickly destroyed by radiation and winds from the young stars born within
them, limiting the efficiency of the gas-to-star conversion to 2-10%. Such
measurements are key to overcome the main limitation of current simulations of
galaxy formation and evolution.
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