Presidential Young Investigator Award - Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium

Vogel博士将与总统青年研究员奖一起开展一个研究项目，该项目将重点研究毫米和厘米波长天文学技术在星际介质和恒星形成研究中的应用。三个领域将被强调：原恒星坍缩阶段，超压缩HII区域的演化，以及附近螺旋星系的恒星形成。星际分子云坍缩形成恒星的确凿证据极其难以获得。一个问题是，坍缩的特征特征只在最小的空间尺度上变得明显，这使得高角度分辨率的观测变得必不可少。另一个问题是，随着坍缩的继续，其他气体运动如外流也会发生。沃格尔博士将集中研究那些没有显示掩盖气体运动证据的物体样本，他将使用最新的观测设备和技术，试图获得云坍缩形成恒星的难以捉摸的直接证据。

Dr. Vogel will conduct a research program with this Presidential Young Investigator award which will focus on the application of millimeter and centimeter wavelength astronomy techniques to the study of the interstellar medium and star formation. Three areas will be emphasized: the protostellar collapse phase, the evolution of ultracompact HII regions, and star formation in nearby spiral galaxies. Conclusive evidence for the collapse of an interstellar molecular cloud to make a star has been extremely difficult to obtain. One problem has been that the characteristic signatures of collapse become evident only on the smallest spatial scales, which makes high angular resolution observations essential. Another problem is that other gas motions such as outflow occur as the collapse continues. Dr. Vogel will concentrate on a sample of objects which do not show evidence of masking gas motions, and he will use newly available observational facilities and techniques in an attempt to obtain the elusive direct evidence of a cloud collapsing to form a star.