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The observation of massive exoplanets at large separation from their host star, like in the HR 8799 system, challenges theories of planet formation. A possible formation mechanism involves the fragmentation of massive self-gravitating discs…
We present collapse simulations of strongly magnetised, turbulent molecular cloud cores with masses ranging from 2.6 to 1000 M_sun in order to study the influence of the initial conditions on the turbulence-induced disc formation mechanism…
Observations of young multiple star systems find a bimodal distribution in companion frequency and separation. The origin of these peaks has often been attributed to binary formation via core and disc fragmentation. However, theory and…
Most stars form in a cluster environment. These stars are initially surrounded by discs from which potentially planetary systems form. Of all cluster environments starburst clusters are probably the most hostile for planetary systems in our…
[Abridged] Star and planet formation are the complex outcomes of gravitational collapse and angular momentum transport mediated by protostellar and protoplanetary disks. In this review we focus on the role of gravitational instability in…
(Abridged) Context. Massive stars form in magnetized and turbulent environments, and are often located in stellar clusters. Their accretion mechanism, as well as the origin of their system's stellar multiplicity are poorly understood. Aims.…
Many fundamental physical processes regarding planetary formation in protoplanetary disks are still imperfectly understood, with an elusive phenomenon being turbulence in such disks. Observations are available of planetary systems and of…
We examine the properties of embedded clusters within 1 kiloparsec using new data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as recent results from 2MASS and other ground-based near-infrared surveys. We use surveys of entire molecular clouds…
The majority of stars are part of gravitationally bound stellar systems, such as binaries. Observations of protobinary systems constrain the conditions that lead to stellar multiplicity and subsequent orbital evolution. We report…
The Nuclear Stellar Disk has been a highly active star-forming region in the Milky Way for approximately the last 30 million years. Despite hosting prominent clusters like Arches, Quintuplet, and Nuclear Stellar, their combined mass is less…
The canonical picture of star formation involves disk-mediated accretion, with Keplerian accretion disks and associated bipolar jets primarily observed in nearby, low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs). Recently, rotating gaseous structures…
A question central to understanding the origin of our solar system is: how do planets form in circumstellar disks around young stars? Because of the complex nature of the physical processes involved, multi-wavelength observations of large…
In recent years, it has been demonstrated that massive stars see their infant circumstellar medium shaped into a large, irradiated, gravitationally unstable accretion disc during their early formation phase. Such discs constitute the gas…
Protoplanetary disks are thought to be the birth places of planetary systems. The formation and the subsequent evolution of protoplanetary disks are regulated by the star formation process, which begins with the collapse of a cloud core to…
High-mass stars, born in massive dense cores (MDCs), profoundly impact the cosmic ecosystem through feedback processes and metal enrichment, yet little is known about how MDCs assemble and transfer mass across scales to form high-mass young…
We develop a semi-analytical model for computing planetary system formation with the aim of explaining the observed diversity of planetary systems architectures and relate this primordial diversity with the initial properties of the disc…
We have examined star formation in two very luminous (M_V=-22 to -23) Sc-type spiral galaxies, NGC 801 and UGC 2885, using ultra-deep Halpha images. We combine these with UBV and 2MASS JHK images and HI maps to explore the star formation…
Binary stars produce an array of dramatic astrophysical phenomena. They allow us to probe stellar structure, nuclear physics, and gravitational wave physics. They also produce the powerful supernovae that allow us to measure the scale of…
Planetary systems form in gas-dust protoplanetary discs via the growth of solid bodies. In this paper, we show that the most intriguing stage of such growth --- namely, the transformation of 1-10 m boulders into kilometre-sized…
(Edited) Many fast rotator stars (rotation periods of < 2 days) are found in unresolved binaries with separations of tens of au. This correlation leads to the question of whether the formation of binary stars inherently produces fast…