Presidential Young Investigator Award - Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium

沃格尔博士将利用总统青年研究员奖开展一项研究计划，重点是将毫米和厘米波长天文技术应用于星际介质和恒星形成的研究。将重点介绍三个领域：原恒星崩塌阶段，超致密HII区的演化，以及附近螺旋星系中的恒星形成。星际分子云坍塌形成恒星的确凿证据一直非常难以获得。一个问题是，崩塌的特征特征只在最小的空间尺度上变得明显，这使得高角度分辨率的观测至关重要。另一个问题是，随着崩塌的继续，其他气体运动也会发生，比如外流。沃格尔博士将专注于没有显示出掩蔽气体运动证据的天体样本，并将使用新可用的观测设施和技术，试图获得难以捉摸的直接证据，证明星云坍塌形成了恒星。

Dr. Vogel will conduct a research program with this Presidential Young Investigator award which will focus on the application of millimeter and centimeter wavelength astronomy techniques to the study of the interstellar medium and star formation. Three areas will be emphasized: the protostellar collapse phase, the evolution of ultracompact HII regions, and star formation in nearby spiral galaxies. Conclusive evidence for the collapse of an interstellar molecular cloud to make a star has been extremely difficult to obtain. One problem has been that the characteristic signatures of collapse become evident only on the smallest spatial scales, which makes high angular resolution observations essential. Another problem is that other gas motions such as outflow occur as the collapse continues. Dr. Vogel will concentrate on a sample of objects which do not show evidence of masking gas motions, and he will use newly available observational facilities and techniques in an attempt to obtain the elusive direct evidence of a cloud collapsing to form a star.