Leveraging a Zooniverse Discovery to Bridge Our Understanding of Low- and High-mass Star Formation

大多数恒星都是以星团的形式形成的，这些星团包含大小和质量都非常不同的恒星。天文学家希望了解为什么只有一些星团形成质量超过太阳八倍的大质量恒星。星系团中的恒星质量对星系团随时间的变化起着重要作用。例如，大质量恒星会通过强烈的恒星风和超新星影响其周围环境。因此，了解决定形成恒星质量的条件对于了解星系形成和随时间变化的方式很重要。这个项目将解决这个问题，“气体云的什么性质会影响星团中形成的恒星的质量？”为了做到这一点，该项目研究了被称为黄球(YBS)的物体，这种物体最初是由公民科学项目的参与者发现的。研究小组已经开发了一项活动，为天文学入门学生提供一种为该项目做出贡献并获得有意义的研究经验的方法。对神学院、礼拜场所、行星馆和媒体的接触将教育不同的公众了解这个项目的发现。调查人员将使用由Zooniverse平台上的银河系项目用户识别的6000多个YBS的数据库。YBS是年轻恒星形成区(SFR)的标志，它们跟踪广泛的质量(10-10,000个太阳质量)和光度(10-1,000,000个太阳光度)。YBS揭示了现有星表中缺失的许多SFR，这些星表往往偏向最大质量和/或发光的区域。研究人员将通过将YBS与恒星形成星表交叉匹配；确定到YBS的分子云组合的距离；根据星表关联和我们得出的距离确定YB环境的物理性质；以及进行多波长红外光度测量，来制作YB属性目录。将通过统计分析、光谱能量分布建模和机器学习技术的应用来识别YB颜色、它们的物理特性和它们的分类之间的趋势。这项研究将阐明描述产生和不产生大质量恒星的环境的物理阈值，并可能另外提供一种仅使用IR流量来对光度、质量和年龄谱上的SFR进行分类的变革性方法。该项目由天文学和天体物理拨款计划和既定的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Most stars form in groups called clusters, which contain stars of very different sizes and masses. Astronomers wish to understand the reasons that only some clusters form massive stars, which have masses more than eight times that of our Sun. The masses of stars in a cluster play an important role in how the cluster changes over time. For example, massive stars influence their surroundings with strong stellar winds and supernovae. Understanding the conditions that dictate the masses of forming stars is therefore important for understanding the ways that galaxies form and change over time. This project will address the question, “what properties of a gas cloud influence the masses of stars that will form in a cluster?” To do so, the project studies objects known as yellow-balls (YBs), which were first discovered by participants in a citizen-science project. The research team has developed an activity that provides introductory astronomy students with a way to contribute to the project and gain meaningful research experience. Outreach to seminaries, places of worship, planetaria, and media outlets will educate diverse public audiences about the findings from this project.The investigators will use a database of over 6,000 YBs identified by users of the Milky Way Project on the Zooniverse platform. YBs are signposts of young star-forming regions (SFRs) that trace a broad range of mass (10 – 10,000 solar masses) and luminosity (10–1,000,000 solar luminosities). YBs reveal many SFRs that are missing in existing catalogs, which tend to be biased towards the most massive and/or luminous regions. The investigators will produce a catalog of YB properties by cross-matching YBs with catalogs of star formation; determining distances to YBs from molecular cloud associations; determining physical properties of YB environments from catalog associations and our derived distances; and conducting multi-wavelength infrared (IR) photometry. Trends between YB colors, their physical properties, and their classifications will be identified through statistical analyses, modeling of spectral energy distributions, and the application of machine learning techniques. This research will elucidate the physical thresholds that delineate environments that do and do not produce massive stars and may additionally provide a transformative approach to classifying SFRs across the luminosity, mass, and age spectrum using only IR fluxes.This project is jointly funded by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Grants program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.