Star Formation in the Extreme Environments of Milky Way Massive Star Clusters

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Dr. Jessica Lu is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA). Dr. Lu will study young Milky Way star clusters that are more massive than most well-studied nearby star forming regions, like Orion and Taurus, in an effort to understand whether star formation differs in these more extreme environments. Study of such regions will advance our understanding of star formation not only in our own Galaxy, but in other galaxies and to higher redshift where such extreme environments are much more common. High spatial resolution near-infrared observations will be used to penetrate the dust and gas that obscures these distant and embedded clusters and resolve individual stars in the dense cluster cores. Precision astrometric measurements of the stars over a 1-2 year time baseline will enable individual cluster members to be distinguished from the sea of contaminating field stars. Furthermore, extending the time-baseline for existing astrometric observations of one cluster in the W51 molecular cloud will allow me to measure the internal kinematics of the cluster. This will provide an estimate of the total cluster mass, constrain the dissipation timescale of the cluster, enable a search for kinematic sub-structure as evidence for dissolving sub-clusters, and reveal the importance of competitive accretion between stars as they move through their parent molecular cloud.Dr. Lu will also address education, outreach, and diversity on two fronts. First, the PI will broaden current and future astronomy teachers' exposure to inquiry-based teaching methods at IfA by developing and offering teacher training for several inquiry-based introductory astronomy labs. The PI plans to work with willing faculty to review their curriculum in order to find suitable points at which an inquiry-based activity could be incorporated. Second, the PI will advise individual students from minority or under-represented sectors in scientific research projects during the IfA's Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program. With these projects, the PI aims to bridge the gap between the smaller community focused on astronomy education research and diversity issues and the larger community of astronomers who teach, but do not follow education research in depth.