Related papers: Clearing the Dust from Globular Clusters
We present results from dynamical Monte Carlo simulations of dense star clusters near the Galactic center. These clusters sink toward the center of the Galaxy by dynamical friction. During their inspiral, they may undergo core collapse and…
This article is based on an invited talk given by V. P. Kulkarni at the 8th Cosmic Dust meeting. Dust has a profound effect on the physics and chemistry of the interstellar gas in galaxies and on the appearance of galaxies. Understanding…
Star clusters are formed in molecular clouds which are believed to be the birth places of most stars. From recent observational data, Lada & Lada 2003 estimated that only 4% to 7% of the clusters embedded inside molecular clouds have…
We propose a simple analytic theory for environmentally-dependent molecular cloud lifetimes, based on the large-scale (galactic) dynamics of the interstellar medium. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime is set by the time-scales for…
Dust offers a unique probe of the interstellar medium (ISM) across multiple size, density, and temperature scales. Dust is detected in outflows of evolved stars, star-forming molecular clouds, planet-forming disks, and even in galaxies at…
The large majority of extragalactic star cluster studies done to date have essentially used two or three-passband aperture photometry, combined with theoretical stellar population synthesis models, to obtain age estimates. The accuracy to…
The expansion of interstellar bubbles is suggested to be an important mechanism of triggering material accumulation and star formation. In this work, we study the gaseous environment of a large sample of bubbles, aiming to explore the…
The duration of starbursts is important for determining how they are regulated and the impact they have on their environment. Starbursts contain numerous prominent star clusters which typically comprise in total ~20% of the ultraviolet…
The relaxation time at the half-mass radius of Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) is typically within a few Gyr. Hence, the majority of GGCs are expected to be well relaxed systems, given their age is around 12-13 Gyr. So any initial radial…
Stars in star clusters are thought to form in a single burst from a common progenitor cloud of molecular gas. However, massive, old globular clusters -- with ages greater than 10 billion years and masses of several hundred thousand solar…
We present new results on the evolution of the mass function of the globular cluster system of the Milky Way, taking the effect of residual gas expulsion into account. We assume that gas embedded star clusters start with a power-law mass…
Spitzer IRAC observations of 15 metal-polluted white dwarfs reveal infrared excesses in the spectral energy distributions of HE 0110-5630, GD 61, and HE 1349-2305. All three of these stars have helium-dominated atmospheres, and their…
We present a search for infrared dust emission associated with the Leo cloud, a large intergalactic cloud in the M96 group. Mid-infrared and far-infrared images were obtained with IRAC and MIPS on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our analysis…
We conducted a survey for infrared excess emission from 16 nearby main sequence shell stars using the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Shell stars are early-type stars with narrow absorption…
To probe the nature of stellar evolution in dense environments, we study the dense core of the globular cluster Messier 13 using pre-refurbishment Planetary Camera-I images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. We find 15 blue straggler…
The star-to-star differences in the abundance of light elements observed in the globular clusters (GCs) can be explained assuming that a second generation (SG) of stars form in the gas ejected by the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars…
The expulsion of the unconverted gas at the end of the star formation process potentially leads to the expansion of the just formed stellar cluster and membership loss. The degree of expansion and mass loss depends largely on the star…
In this analysis we illustrate how the relatively new emission mechanism known as spinning dust can be used to characterize dust grains in the interstellar medium. We demonstrate this by using spinning dust emission observations to…
The physics of galaxy clusters has proven to be influenced by several processes connected with their galactic component which pollutes the ICM with metals, stars and dust. However, it is not clear whether the presence of diffuse dust can…
Dust is an essential ingredient of galaxies, determining the physical and chemical conditions in the interstellar medium. Several complementary observational evidences indicate that the cosmic dust mass density significantly drops from…