Molecular Mountains of the Milky Way

大多数恒星都是与其他恒星一起在小星团中诞生的。因此，这些星团是星系的基本组成部分。这些星团最初是分子气体云，经过数百万年变成恒星。 关于星星团形成的一些基本问题仍在争论中，包括“到底需要多长时间”？以及“云里有多少气体变成了星团恒星”？根据他们先前对分子云分布的观察，他们认为分子云的形成时间相对较长。 有了这个缓慢的星星形成的假设，他们将比较在我们星系中检测到的分子类型和分子之间的化学关系。 他们将匹配他们的观察结果，以找到正确的化学模型。 他们有数千小时的先前观察，他们将用这些观察来回答这些问题。 他们还将以一种对其他研究星星形成的天文学家有用的方式对数据进行全面校准。因为他们对银河系中心的大部分进行了测量，他们将把小尺度上的化学结构与银河系的大尺度结构联系起来。在更大的星系尺度上，还有许多与星星如何从小星团移动并在此过程中破坏恒星诞生地分子云的基本问题有关的未决问题，这项研究将纳入教学活动，包括增加天文学入门课程“发现宇宙”，他每年在佛罗里达大学教几百名学生。他们将在这项研究的基础上开发一个新的公共宣传演讲，名为“银河系的分子山”，将在当地学校和他帮助在佛罗里达自然历史博物馆组织的星夜公共宣传活动中展示。此外，该提案将直接有助于培养两名博士。学生主要研究成果之一将是分子谱线调查数据，通过互联网向天文学界公开。在此提议期间，PI将在佛罗里达州组织一次关于星星形成的国际会议，其中一部分将专门讨论将星星形成与银河系结构联系起来的银河系平面调查结果。

The majority of stars are born in small clusters with other stars. These clusters are thus the basic building blocks of galaxies. These clusters start out as clouds of molecular gas, which turn into stars over millions of years. A number of fundamental questions about star cluster formation are still debated, including "exactly how long does it take"? and "how much of the gas in the clouds turned into clusters stars"?Based on their previous observations of the distribution of molecular clouds, they have argued for relatively long formation times. With this assumption of slow star formation, they will compare the types of molecules detected in our galaxy with the chemical relationships between the molecules. They will match their observations to find the correct chemical models. They have thousands of hours of previous observations which they will use to answer these questions. Also they will fully calibrate the data in a manner useful to other astronomers studying star formation.Because they have measurements of a large part of the center of our galaxy, they will relate the chemical structure on small scales with our galaxy's large scale structure. On the larger, galaxy-sized, scales there are also many open issues related to the basic question of how star move from small clusters, and in the process, destroying the molecular clouds which were the birthplaces of the stars.This research will be integrated into the teaching activities, including additions to the introductory astronomy course, Discover the Universe, he teaches each year to hundreds of students at the University of Florida. They will develop a new public outreach presentation based on this research, entitled "Molecular Mountains of the Milky Way", which will be presented in local schools and at the Starry Night public outreach event he helps organize at the Florida Museum of Natural History. In addition, this proposal will directly contribute towards the training of two Ph.D. students. One of the main research products will be the molecular line survey data, made publicly available to the astronomical community via the internet. During this proposal period the PI will organize an international conference on star formation in Florida, part of which will be devoted to the results from Galactic plane surveys that connect star formations to the structure of our Galaxy.