Star Formation in Extreme Environments

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The formation of stars is a fundamental astrophysical process that gives rise to planetary systems, enriches interstellar gas, and affects the formation and evolution of galaxies. Despite its importance, we still lack a predictive theory of star formation that has been tested over a broad range of environments. To test competing theories of star formation, we must extend beyond the neighborhood of our Sun. In this program, the team will study how stars form in extreme environments found in the Galaxy's most massive star clusters and at its center. Studying these distant, crowded, and dusty young star clusters requires high-fidelity images at infrared wavelengths. The team will precisely measure each star's motion in the sky to separate stars in the cluster, which move together, from contaminating field stars, which move more randomly. They will compare the young stars in these extreme environments to those found in our Sun's neighborhood, which will provide a deeper understanding of the physics of how stars form. The Ph.D. students working on this research will also share these and other results with undergraduate students in Hawaii by participating in education training and a practical teaching experience that emphasizes scientific inquiry and diverse learning styles. This investigation will concentrate on a small sample of massive young clusters throughout the Milky Way and determine how the properties of the stars and clusters change in different environments. The team will use infrared observations from the largest ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics and from the Hubble space telescope. They have developed a suite of analysis tools that deliver some of the most precise star motions ever achieved at infrared wavelengths, which is essential when studying these star clusters. The team will measure the structure and dynamics of the clusters as well as the distribution of star masses. They will also compare the clusters in our sample with each other, with star clusters in the Sun's neighborhood, and with theoretical simulations. Taken together, this study of massive young clusters will provide powerful constraints on theories of star and cluster formation. Graduate students working on this research will also participate in an intensive professional development program through the Hawaii chapter of the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators, where they will train in inquiry-based teaching methods and diverse learning styles. They will gain practical experience by teaching in Hawaii-based venues that target under-served groups, including Native Hawaiians, at the undergraduate level. Both the scientific results and new inquiry activities developed through this program will be disseminated broadly to astronomers to multiply their impact.