Related papers: The New Frontier: Galactic-Scale Star Formation
The cosmic history of star formation is briefly reviewed, starting with the Milky Way and then discussing observations relevant to the closed box and hierarchical build-up models. Observations of local star formation are reviewed for…
The formation of stars is a key process in astrophysics. Detailed knowledge of the physical mechanisms that govern stellar birth is a prerequisite for understanding the formation and evolution of our galactic home, the Milky Way. A theory…
Observations of intensely bright star-forming galaxies both close by and in the distant Universe at first glance seem to emphasize their similarity. But look a little closer, and differences emerge.
We review knowledge of galaxy structures obtained by their emitted light and in the local universe where they can be studied in great detail. We discuss the shapes of, and stellar motions within, galaxies, compositional clues derived from…
Over the past three decades the established view of a nearly homogeneuous, featureless Universe on scales larger than a few Megaparsec has been completely overhauled. In particular through the advent of ever larger galaxy redshift surveys…
With the help of a statistical parameter derived from optical spectra, we show that the current star formation rate of a galaxy, falling into a cluster along a supercluster filament, is likely to undergo a sudden enhancement before the…
The recent detection of the Cosmic Infrared Background in FIRAS and DIRBE residuals, and the observations of IR/submm sources by the ISOPHOT and SCUBA instruments have shed new light on the optically dark side of galaxy formation. It turns…
In these lectures I review observations of star-forming molecular clouds in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies to develop a physical intuition for understanding star formation in the local and high-redshift Universe. A lot of this material is…
I present recent observations and analyses of star cluster formation in a wide variety of environments -- from young star clusters and super star clusters in normal actively star-forming spirals and irregulars to starbursting dwarfs and…
The determination of photospheric abundances in late-type stars from spectroscopic observations is a well-established field, built on solid theoretical foundations. Improving those foundations to refine the accuracy of the inferred…
The stellar populations of galaxies contain a wealth of detailed information. From the youngest, most massive stars, to almost invisible remnants, the history of star formation is encoded in the stars that make up a galaxy. Extracting some,…
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the primary reservoirs of cold, star-forming molecular gas in the Milky Way and similar galaxies, and thus any understanding of star formation must encompass a model for GMC formation, evolution, and…
From the time the first stars formed over 13 billion years ago to the present, star formation has had an unexpectedly dynamic history. At first, the star formation rate density increased dramatically, reaching a peak 10 billion years ago…
Over the last decade Galactic planetary nebula discoveries have entered a golden age due to the emergence of high sensitivity, high resolution narrow-band surveys of the Galactic plane. These have been coupled with access to complimentary,…
I attempt to piece together a consistent scenario based on current estimates of the evolution of the star formation rate of the Universe, the metallicity evolution of the star-forming regions of the Universe and the most recent observations…
We present a review of observational studies of high-mass star formation, based mainly on our own research. It includes surveys of high-mass star-forming regions in various molecular lines and in continuum, investigations of filamentary…
I review the current state of our understanding of the galaxy formation and evolution process from the modeler's perspective. With the advent of the cold dark matter model and the support of fast computers and advanced simulation…
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic…
The advent of the Spitzer Space Telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the history of star formation and galaxy mass assembly in the Universe. The tremendous leap in sensitivity from previous mid-to-far IR missions has allowed…
Projected in the sky, galaxies are spatially-resolved objects. To understand how they formed and evolve it is necessary to study the spatial distribution of their observables. In this review talk, we briefly describe some scaling relations…