Related papers: Collisional debris as laboratories to study star f…
Within the key project "Herschel M33 extended survey" (HerM33es), we are studying the physical and chemical processes driving star formation and galactic evolution in the nearby galaxy M33, combining the study of local conditions affecting…
We quantitatively investigate how collisional avalanches may developin debris discs as the result of the initial break-up of a planetesimal or comet-like object, triggering a collisional chain reaction due to outward escaping small dust…
Theories of how galaxies, the fundamental constituents of large-scale structure, form and evolve have undergone a dramatic paradigm shift in the last few decades. Earlier views were of rapid, early collapse and formation of basic…
Understanding the star formation process is central to much of modern astrophysics. For several decades it has been thought that stellar birth is primarily controlled by the interplay between gravity and magnetostatic support, modulated by…
Star formation is one of the key factors that shapes galaxies. This process is relatively well understood from both simulations and observations on a small "local" scale of individual giant molecular clouds and also on a "global"…
Evidence for triggered star formation is difficult to establish because energy feedback from massive stars tend to erase the interstellar conditions that led to the star formation. Young stellar objects (YSOs) mark sites of {\it current}…
Star-forming regions that are visible at 3.6 microns and Halpha but not in the u,g,r,i,z bands of the Sloan Digital Sky survey (SDSS), are measured in five nearby spiral galaxies to find extinctions averaging ~3.8 mag and stellar masses…
We present a study of the spectroscopic and photometric properties of galaxies in six nearby clusters. We perform a partial correlation analysis on our dataset to investigate whether the correlation between star formation rates in galaxies…
Triggered star formation in bright rims and shells is reviewed. Shells are commonly observed in the Milky Way and other galaxies, but most diffuse shells seen in HI or the infrared do not have obvious triggered star formation. Dense…
The Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project (HELP) brings together a vast range of data from many astronomical observatories. Its main focus is on the Herschel data, which maps dust obscured star formation over 1300 deg$^2$. With this…
The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way harbours gas densities, pressures, velocity dispersions, an interstellar radiation field and a cosmic ray ionisation rate orders of magnitude higher than the disc; akin to the environment found…
Galaxy interactions expel a significant amount of stars and gas into the surrounding environment. I review the formation and evolution of the tidal debris spawned during these collisions, and describe how this evolution depends on the large…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition…
Observations have suggested that galactic outflows contain substantial amounts of dense and clumpy molecular gas, creating favourable conditions for igniting star formation. Indeed, theoretical models and hydrodynamical simulations have…
The eccentric orbits of the known extrasolar giant planets provide evidence that most planet-forming environments undergo violent dynamical instabilities. Here, we numerically simulate the impact of giant planet instabilities on planetary…
The inner parsec of our Galaxy contains tens of Wolf-Rayet stars whose powerful outflows are constantly interacting while filling the region with hot, diffuse plasma. Theoretical models have shown that, in some cases, the collision of…
Star formation triggering mechanisms are reviewed, including the direct compression of clouds and globules, the compression and collapse of molecular clouds at the edges of HII regions and supernovae, the expansion and collapse of giant…
Observations of dusty debris disks can be used to test theories of planetesimal coagulation. Planetesimals of sizes up to a couple thousand kms are embedded in these disks and their mutual collisions generate the small dust grains that are…
In the outskirts of nearby spiral galaxies, star formation is observed in extremely low gas surface densities. Star formation in these regions, where the interstellar medium is dominated by diffuse atomic hydrogen, is difficult to explain…