Related papers: Detection of a septuple stellar system in formatio…
We analyse simulations of turbulent, magnetised molecular cloud cores focussing on the formation of Class 0 stage protostellar discs and the physical conditions in their surroundings. We show that for a wide range of initial conditions…
Most massive stars are found in the center of dense clusters, and have a companion fraction much higher than their lower mass siblings; the massive stars of the Trapezium core in Orion have ~ 1.5 companions each. This high multiplicity…
Conditions for the fragmentation of expanding shells due to gravitational instability are discussed. The self-similar analytical solution is compared with the results of 3-dimensional computer simulations for the expansion into homogeneous…
We investigate the formation of discs within binary systems where at least one component has left the main sequence. In particular we calculate the occurrence rates of systems which can host long-lived, massive discs that may be able to…
Planetary systems can evolve dynamically even after the planets themselves have fully formed, and there is circumstantial evidence that most planetary systems become unstable after the disappearance of the gaseous protoplanetary disk.…
The structure of planetary systems around their host stars depends on their initial formation conditions. Massive planets will likely be formed as a consequence of rapid migration of planetesimals and low mass cores into specific trapping…
Recent images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of the interacting disk galaxies NGC 4038/4039 (the Antennae) reveal clusters of many dozens and possibly hundreds of young compact massive star clusters within projected regions…
We compile a sample of 341 binary and multiple star systems with the aim of searching for and characterising Kuiper belt-like debris discs. The sample is assembled by combining several smaller samples studied in previously published work…
Observations of circumstellar disks around stars as a function of stellar properties such as mass, metallicity, multiplicity, and age, provide constraints on theories concerning the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Utilizing…
Binary formation is an important aspect of star formation. One possible route for close-in binary formation is disk fragmentation$^{[1,2,3]}$. Recent observations show small scale asymmetries (<300 au) around young protostars$^{[2,4]}$,…
The properties and star formation processes in the far-outer disks of nearby spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies are reviewed. The origin and structure of the generally exponential profiles in stellar disks is considered to result from…
Most stars, perhaps even all stars, form in crowded stellar environments. Such star forming regions typically dissolve within ten million years, while others remain bound as stellar groupings for hundreds of millions to billions of years,…
A significant fraction of Kepler systems are closely-packed, largely coplanar and circular. We study the stability of a 6-planet system, Kepler-11, to gain insights on the dynamics and formation history of such systems. Using a technique…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
The Kepler-discovered Systems with Tightly-packed Inner Planets (STIPs), typically with several planets of Earth to super-Earth masses on well-aligned, sub-AU orbits may host the most common type of planets, including habitable planets, in…
A new idea is proposed for the origin of bulges in spiral galaxies. Numerical simulations for the protogalactic collapse suggest strongly that galactic bulges have been assembled from massive clumps formed in the galactic disks in their…
Stars form from the gravitational collapse of turbulent, magnetized molecular cloud cores. Our non-ideal MHD simulations reveal that the intrinsically anisotropic magnetic resistance to gravity during the core collapse naturally generates…
The inspiral of a turbulent molecular cloud in the Galactic Centre may result in the formation of a small, dense and moderately eccentric gas disc around the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Such a disc is unstable to fragmentation and may…
The development of perturbations in the circumstellar disks of pre-main-sequence stars caused by clumpy accretion was investigated. Here we perform 3D hydrodynamical smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of disks perturbed by a recent…
Classical Be stars are an enigmatic subclass of rapidly rotating hot stars characterized by dense equatorial disks of gas that have been inferred to orbit with Keplerian velocities. Although these disks seem to be ejected from the star and…