Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/10/2006
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Title: Probing the Extremes of Star Formation

Speaker: Dr. Christine Wilson

Institute: McMaster Unversity

Location: ABB 102

Description:

Luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) contain the most intense regions of star formation in the local universe. Because molecular gas is the fuel for current and future star formation, the physical properties and distribution of the warm, dense molecular gas are key components for understanding the processes and timescales controlling star formation in these merger and merger remnant galaxies. In this talk, I will present new results from a legacy project on the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, which is producing high resolution images of a representative sample of galaxies with far infrared luminosities greater than 250 billion times the luminosity of our Sun and distances less than 200 Mpc (600 light years).