Date/Time
Date(s) - 18/03/2009
3:20 pm - 4:20 pm

Title: Molecular Clouds and the Large-Scale Regulation of Star Formation

Speaker: Dr. Eve Ostriker – University of Maryland

Institute: University of Maryland

Location: ABB 102

Description:

Star formation in spiral galaxies is observed to take place in cold, dense clouds containing millions of solar masses of molecular gas. These clouds are very dynamic, forming out of diffuse interstellar gas, undergoing local collapse to produce clusters of stars, and then dispersing due to energetic feedback from star formation. I will discuss how turbulence renders star formation inefficient within individual molecular clouds, and how a variety of processes in spiral galaxies interact to encourage or suppress molecular cloud formation. Recent numerical simulations have shown how molecular cloud formation produces hot young star clusters that light up the spiral arms in galaxies, and have been able to reproduce observed relationships between the large-scale properties of the interstellar medium and star formation rates in nearby disk galaxies.