Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium

恒星形成和星际介质

• 批准号: 1722-2012
• 负责人: Fich, Michel
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=568214
• 关键词: Star; Formation; Interstellar; Medium

Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a large spiral galaxy. Most public images of galaxies are of spiral galaxies because they are bright, filled with interesting structure such as their spiral arms, and they are common. Spiral galaxies have a key role in the evolution of galaxies in the Universe with significantly more of them formed early in the lifetime of the Universe and then they merge and evolve to create the Universe we see around us today. We are limited in our ability to understand the structure of other spiral galaxies by their distance from us. In order to gain such understanding I will study the structure of our Milky Way galaxy, with a special focus on the brightest objects that would be visible in other spiral galaxies. These brightest objects are the most massive stars, just forming now, and the hot glowing HII regions around them. These objects provide a key probe of the structure of the Milky Way's interstellar medium, with dominates the visible appearance of spiral galaxies. Another important aspect of this research program is the creation of new instrumentation for this research. Two instruments developed in the past decade under Dr. Fich's leadership have recently begun operations: HIFI on the Herschel Space Observatory and the SCUBA-2 camera at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Research described in this current proposal will make use of these new facilities. An exciting next generation project is also described in this proposal: CCAT, a 25 meter far infrared telescope to be built in Chile, has recently begun its final engineering design. Dr. Fich is the Canadian leader of this international project. This project will be a major focus of this research program.

我们的银河系是一个巨大的螺旋星系。 大多数公开的星系图像都是螺旋星系，因为它们很明亮，充满了有趣的结构，比如它们的旋臂，而且它们很常见。 螺旋星系在宇宙中星系的演化中起着关键作用，其中更多的星系在宇宙早期形成，然后它们合并和演化，创造了我们今天看到的宇宙。 我们理解其他螺旋星系结构的能力受到它们与我们距离的限制。 为了获得这样的理解，我将研究我们银河系的结构，特别关注在其他螺旋星系中可见的最明亮的物体。 这些最明亮的物体是最大质量的恒星，刚刚形成，以及它们周围炽热的HII区域。 这些天体提供了一个关键的探测银河系的星际介质的结构，主导了可见的螺旋星系的外观。 这项研究计划的另一个重要方面是为这项研究创造新的仪器。在Fich博士的领导下，在过去十年中开发的两个仪器最近开始运行：Herschel空间天文台的HIFI和James Clerk麦克斯韦望远镜的SCUBA-2相机。 本提案所述的研究将利用这些新设施。 该提案还描述了一个令人兴奋的下一代项目：将在智利建造的25米远红外望远镜CCAT最近开始了最终的工程设计。 Fich博士是这个国际项目的加拿大领导人。该项目将是该研究计划的重点。