Related papers: A Search For Star Formation in the Smith Cloud
The Smith Cloud is a high-velocity cloud (HVC) on its final approach to the Milky Way that shows evidence of interaction with the Galaxy's disk. We investigate the metallicity and gas-phase chemical depletion patterns in this HVC using UV…
New 21cm HI observations made with the Green Bank Telescope show that the high-velocity cloud known as Smith's Cloud has a striking cometary appearance and many indications of interaction with the Galactic ISM. The velocities of interaction…
Active gas accretion onto the Milky Way is observed in an object called the Smith Cloud, which contains several million solar masses of neutral and warm ionized gas and is currently losing material to the Milky Way, adding angular momentum…
We have used infrared and radio observations to search for a dwarf galaxy associated with the high-velocity cloud (HVC) known as Complex H. Complex H is a large (> 400 deg^2) and probably nearby (d = 27 kpc) HVC whose location in the…
The Smith Cloud is a gaseous high-velocity cloud (HVC) in an advanced state of accretion, only 2.9 kpc below the Galactic plane and due to impact the disk in 27 Myr. It is unique among HVCs in having a known distance (12.4+/-1.3 kpc) and a…
The accretion of metal-poor gas sustains galactic star formation. In the Milky Way, this process is fueled by high-velocity clouds (HVCs), yet their fundamental properties have remained elusive in the absence of stellar tracers. Here we…
As a part of the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) survey, we performed a simultaneous 12CO(1-0), 13CO(1-0), C18O(1-0) mapping toward molecular clouds in a region encompassing 3.75 square degrees. We reveal three molecular clouds,…
We investigate how the properties of Galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their denser substructures (clumps) correlate with the local star formation rate. We trace clouds using the $^{12}$CO(3-2) transition, as observed by the CO…
High-velocity clouds (HVCs) may fuel future star formation in the Milky Way, but they must first survive their passage through the hot halo. While recent work has improved our understanding of the survival criterion for cloud-wind…
Does star formation proceed in the same way in large spirals such as the Milky Way and in smaller chemically younger galaxies? Earlier work suggests a more rapid transformation of H$_2$ into stars in these objects but (1) a doubt remains…
Star formation on galactic scales is known to be a slow process, but whether it is slow on smaller scales is uncertain. We cross-correlate 5469 giant molecular clouds (GMCs) from a new all-sky catalog with 256 star forming complexes (SFCs)…
Newborn stars form within the localized, high density regions of molecular clouds. The sequence and rate at which stars form in dense clumps and the dependence on local and global environments are key factors in developing descriptions of…
The Smith Cloud is a massive system of metal-poor neutral and ionized gas M_gas >= 2x10^6 M_sun) that is presently moving at high velocity (V_GSR ~300 km s^-1) with respect to the Galaxy at a distance of 12 kpc from the Sun. The kinematics…
We have used the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to search for the OH molecule at several locations in the Smith Cloud, one of the most prominent of the high-velocity clouds that surround the Milky Way. Five positions with a high HI column…
We present initial results from a population synthesis model aimed at determining the star formation rate of the Milky-Way. We find that a total star formation rate of 0.68 to 1.45 Msun/yr is able to reproduce the observed number of young…
We present a comparison of the Milky Way's star formation rate (SFR) surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$) obtained with two independent state-of-the-art observational methods. The first method infers $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ from observations of…
We investigate the future evolution of the Smith Cloud by performing hydrodynamical simulations of the cloud impact onto the gaseous Milky Way Galactic disk. We assume a local origin for the cloud and thus do not include a dark matter…
Since HCN emission has been shown to be a linear tracer of ongoing star formation activity, we have searched for HCN (J = 1->0) emission from known GMCs in the nearby galaxy M33. No significant HCN emission has been found along any of the…
We present a new derivation of the Milky Way's current star formation rate (SFR) based on the data of the Hi-GAL Galactic plane survey. We estimate the distribution of the SFR across the Galactic plane from the star-forming clumps…
We report the discovery of a new, low luminosity star cluster in the outer halo of the Milky Way. High quality $gr$ photometry is presented, from which a color-magnitude diagram is constructed, and estimates of age, [Fe/H], [$\alpha$/Fe],…