Star formation in the Milky Way
(Chrysostomou, Drew, Gledhill, Hough, Lucas, Thompson)
A question that has been asked for centuries now is 'How did the Sun form?' Modern astronomy has generalised the question to a set of inter-related questions: how does any type of star form, do stars of all masses form the same way, and how should we understand the relationship between star and star cluster formation and early evolution. To address the earliest phases of the lives of stars it is critical to work at the longer wavelengths at which dust shines rather than blocks light. At UH we have extensive involvement in observational programmes spanning the infrared through to radio regimes. We also have interests in mapping Milky Way dust and understanding the properties of dust grains. Searches for and studies of young open star clusters are also undertaken here and draw mainly on our Galactic Plane Surveys at optical, IR and sub-millimetre wavelengths.
The complexity of star formation: this is an annotated Herschel image of the Cygnus-X region of the northern Galactic Plane. In the middle is the optically accessible Cyg OB2 association. But much of the rest of the action in this optically dark region, to either side, is for view at far-infrared and longer wavelengths: the detected emission at 70um is in blue, at 160um - green, and at 250um - red. Picture from ESA.