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Related papers: Stellar encounters with giant molecular clouds

200 papers

Recent surveys of the Galactic plane have revealed dozens of giant molecular filaments (GMFs), with lengths ranging from tens to hundreds of parsecs, yet their origins and life cycles remain debated. In this work, we analyze over 700 GMFs…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-12-11 Zipeng Hu , Ke Wang , Mark R. Krumholz , Keyun Su

Aims: To reveal the morphology, chemical composition, kinematics and to establish the main processes prevalent in the gas at the foot points of the giant molecular loops (GMLs) in the Galactic center region Methods: Using the 22-m Mopra…

We present a study of the gas cycle and star formation history in the central 500 pc of the Milky Way, known as Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). Through hydrodynamical simulations of the inner 4.5 kpc of our Galaxy, we follow the gas cycle in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-10-23 L. Armillotta , M. R. Krumholz , E. M. Di Teodoro , N. M. McClure-Griffiths

Using hydrodynamical simulations of entire galactic discs similar to the Milky Way, reaching 4.6pc resolution, we study the origins of observed physical properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). We find that efficient stellar feedback is…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-07-04 Kearn Grisdale , Oscar Agertz , Florent Renaud , Alessandro B. Romeo

We compare the mass functions of young star clusters (ages $\leq 10$ Myr) and giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in six galaxies that cover a large range in mass, metallicity, and star formation rate (LMC, M83, M51, NGC 3627, the Antennae, and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-05-06 Angus Mok , Rupali Chandar , S. Michael Fall

From our catalog of Milky Way molecular clouds, created using a temperature thresholding algorithm on the Bell Laboratories 13CO Survey, we have extracted two subsets:(1) Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), clouds that are definitely larger than…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-30 Antony A. Stark , Youngung Lee

We present a high spatial resolution ($\approx 20$ pc) of $^{12}$CO($2-1$) observations of the lenticular galaxy NGC4526. We identify 103 resolved Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) and measure their properties: size $R$, velocity dispersion…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-04-13 Dyas Utomo , Leo Blitz , Timothy Davis , Erik Rosolowsky , Martin Bureau , Michele Cappellari , Marc Sarzi

The Galactic centre - as the closest galactic nucleus - holds both intrinsic interest and possibly represents a useful analogue to star-burst nuclei which we can observe with orders of magnitude finer detail than these external systems. The…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-03 Roland M. Crocker

In exoplanet research, the focus is increasingly on identifying Earth analogs, planets similar in density and habitability potential. As the number of rocky exoplanets grows, parallel discussions have emerged on system architectures and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-08-06 E. Spitoni , M. Palla , L. Magrini , F. Matteucci , C. Danielski , M. Tsantaki , A. Sozzetti , M. Molero , F. Fontani , D. Romano , G. Cescutti , L. Silva

Nuclear star clusters represent some of the most extreme collisional environments in the Universe. A nuclear star cluster like that of the Milky Way harbors a supermassive black hole at its center, which accelerates stars to high speeds…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-02-03 Sanaea C. Rose , James C. Lombardi, , Elena González Prieto , Fulya Kıroğlu , Frederic A. Rasio

The central molecular zone (CMZ) hosts some of the most massive and dense molecular clouds and star clusters in the Galaxy, offering an important window into star formation under extreme conditions. Star formation in this extreme…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-02-22 J. D. Henshaw

We model the combined effects of photoionization and momentum--driven winds from O--stars on molecular clouds spanning a parameter space of initial conditions. The dynamical effects of the winds are very modest. However, in the lower--mass…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 J. E. Dale , J. Ngoumou , B. Ercolano , I. A. Bonnell

Like most galaxies, the Milky Way harbors a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center, surrounded by a nuclear star cluster. In this dense star cluster, direct collisions can occur between stars before they evolve off the main-sequence.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-24 Sanaea C. Rose , Smadar Naoz , Re'em Sari , Itai Linial

Two generations of stars, G1 and G2, typically populate Galactic globular clusters (GCs). The origin of G2 stars is unclear. We uncover two empirical dependencies between GC characteristics, which can be explained by the formation of G2…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-09-23 Valery Kravtsov , Sami Dib , Francisco A. Calderon , Jose A. Belinchon

We numerically investigate dynamical and chemical properties of star clusters (open and globular clusters, and ``super star clusters'', SSC) formed in interacting/merging galaxies. The investigation is two-fold: (1) large-scale…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Kenji Bekki

About 15%-60% of all supernova remnants are estimated to interact with dense molecular clouds. In these high density environments, radiative losses are significant. The cooling radiation can be observed in forbidden lines at optical…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-12-25 P. Smirnova , E. I. Makarenko , S. D. Clarke , E. Glukhov , S. Walch , I. Vaezzadeh , D. Seifried

The HNC/HCN ratio is observationally known as a thermometer in Galactic interstellar molecular clouds. A recent study has alternatively suggested that the HNC/HCN ratio is affected by the ultraviolet (UV) field, not by the temperature. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-05-16 Nanase Harada , Toshiki Saito , Yuri Nishimura , Yoshimasa Watanabe , Kazushi Sakamoto

NGC~613 is a nearby barred spiral galaxy with a nuclear ring. Exploiting high spatial resolution ($\approx20$ pc) Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array $^{12}$CO(1-0) observations, we study the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the…

We present the first model that couples high-resolution simulations of the formation of Local Group galaxies with calculations of the galactic habitable zone (GHZ), a region of space which has sufficient metallicity to form terrestrial…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-03 Duncan Forgan , Pratika Dayal , Charles Cockell , Noam Libeskind

We investigate star formation at very early evolutionary phases in five massive clouds in the inner 500 pc of the Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone. Using interferometer observations of H$_2$O masers and ultra-compact H II regions, we find…