The Evolution of Mass Outflow during Massive Star Formation

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。新墨西哥州矿业技术研究所的彼得·霍夫纳和米歇尔·切赫-埃克曼将对大质量恒星中的恒星风、喷流和分子外流进行观测研究。天文学家早就知道，质量大于8个太阳质量的恒星，即使不是全部，也会在其生命的大部分时间里损失物质。这种质量损失在恒星形成的原恒星阶段尤为重要。这个研究小组将获得几个波长的成像和光谱，以增加关于大质量年轻恒星流的可用数据，确定发射和驱动流出的物理过程，并根据流的特性建立大质量原恒星的演化序列。该项目预计将对许多不同背景下的喷流和流的研究产生广泛影响，包括低质量恒星和行星的形成，以及活动星系核中所见的喷流。该项目的数据产品还可能指导智利的阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列和新墨西哥州的扩展甚大阵列的未来工作。研究团队还将包括两名研究生和几名本科生。该项目的技术和成果将被纳入新墨西哥理工学院的天体物理学课程。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Drs. Peter Hoffner and Michelle Cheech-Eakman of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will undertake an observational study of stellar winds, jets, and molecular outflows in massive stars. Astronomers have long known that stars with masses greater than 8 solar masses lose material during most, if not all, of their lives. This mass loss is particularly important during the protostar phase, when the stars are being formed. This research team will obtain imaging and spectroscopy at several wavelengths to increase the available data about flows from massive young stars, to determine the physical process which launch and drive the outflows, and to establish an evolutionary sequence for massive protostars based on the properties of the flows.This project is expected to have a broad impact for the study of jets and flows in many different contexts, including the formation of low-mass stars and planets, as well as the jets seen in active galactic nuclei. Data products from this project may also guide future work with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile and the Expanded Very Large Array in New Mexico. The research team will also include two graduate students and several undergraduate students. The project's techniques and results will be incorporated into astrophysics courses at New Mexico Tech.