The birth of massive stars

澳大利亚的天文学质量在国际上享有盛誉。这反过来又激发了公众对科学的兴趣，并有助于推动追求科学所需的技术的发展。在过去的十年里，我们国家在毫米波天文学技术上进行了投资，建造了具有竞争力的仪器和我们半球的第一个干涉仪。我们的目标是利用这项投资，利用它进入我们的国际合作伙伴在智利建造的一线设施。这样做，我们将使学生接触到前沿技术，并帮助培养一个充满活力的无线电科学社区，一个能够积极参与到定于2012年完工的价值数十亿美元的国际ALMA射电望远镜的社区。

Australia has an international reputation for the quality of its astronomy. This in turn stimulates public interest in science, and helps drive the development of technologies needed to pursue it. Over the past decade our nation has invested in the technology for millimetre-wave astronomy, building competitive instrumentation and the first interferometer in our hemisphere. We aim to capitalise on this investment, leveraging it to access frontline facilities in Chile being built by our international partners. In doing so, we will expose our students to the leading-edge and help nurture a vigorous radio science community, one able to actively participate in the billion-dollar international ALMA radio-telescope, due for completion in 2012.