Studying Stellar Nurseries in the Near Part of the Milky Way

研究银河系附近的恒星苗圃

基本信息

批准号：
1516932
负责人：
Nadejda Kaltcheva
金额：
$ 16.07万
依托单位：
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2015-09-01 至 2021-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1516932&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Studying Stellar Nurseries Near Part

项目摘要

Half a century ago, scientists did not think that stars were continually forming in the Universe. We now know that the Universe consists of billions of galaxies, and many of them harbor regions of star formation. In the Milky Way galaxy we can study this process in unprecedented detail. According to the current theories, stars form in both turbulent and quiescent clouds of interstellar gas and dust. However, the details are still unknown. How exactly one generation of stars leads to the next remains to be determined through a combination of observation and theory. This project is focused on a detailed mapping of the structure of relatively nearby regions where stars form. This will allow us to spatially correlate the coherent groups of stars to the complex net of interstellar medium features and, therefore, further study their interactions. The project has been chosen specifically to introduce students to the nature of scientific investigation. Mapping the Milky Way and investigating how stars are born are ideas that students find interesting and accessible. Small parts of this project can be isolated as independent research tasks, which creates an inclusive learning environment for undergraduate students with different skills, aptitudes, and preferences. This first encounter with research opens the door to richer research experiences and could lead toward careers in science- and engineering-related fields.The objective of this proposal is to reassess the structure and star-formation history of the major Galactic star-forming fields. Precise photometric parallaxes will be employed to correlate the spatial distribution of young massive stars to the surrounding structures of interstellar matter. The subsequent star-formation history analysis seeks to reach specific conclusions on still controversial issues, such as star formation hierarchy (clustered or triggered star formation) and multiple stellar generations across star-forming complexes. Interpreting the star-formation scenario within the Galactic disk is always problematic because of the many choices of tracer objects, varied observational approaches, and issues regarding the quantity, quality, and completeness of the observational data. To overcome this, new and existing data will be combined to produce a catalog of Galactic young clusters, OB-associations, and early-type field stars for which photometric parallaxes can be calculated. The catalog will be an excellent source of homogeneous distances and color excesses, and thus a reliable starting point in the study of the Galactic spiral structure to 5-6 kpc. The project is chosen not only for its contribution to the field of astronomy, but also because of its feasibility for faculty and students in a primarily undergraduate institution.

半个世纪前，科学家认为恒星在宇宙中不断形成。现在，我们知道宇宙由数十亿个星系组成，其中许多宇宙藏有恒星形成地区。在银河系中，我们可以以前所未有的细节来研究这一过程。根据目前的理论，星际气体和灰尘的湍流和静态云中形成了恒星。但是，细节仍然未知。一代恒星如何导致下一个恒星仍可以通过观察和理论的结合来确定。该项目的重点是对恒星形成的相对附近区域的结构进行详细的映射。这将使我们能够在空间上将一致的恒星组与星际介质特征的复杂网络相关联，从而进一步研究它们的相互作用。该项目是专门为向学生介绍科学研究的性质的。绘制银河系并调查恒星的出生方式是学生认为有趣且易于访问的想法。该项目的小部分可以隔离为独立的研究任务，这为具有不同技能，能力和偏好的本科生创造了包容性学习环境。与研究的第一次相遇为更丰富的研究经验打开了大门，并可能导致与科学和工程相关领域的职业。该提案的目的是重新评估主要银河系形成领域的结构和星形成历史。将采用精确的光度视差将年轻巨星的空间分布与星际物质的周围结构相关联。随后的恒星形成历史分析旨在就仍然有争议的问题得出特定的结论，例如恒星形成层次结构（聚集或触发的恒星形成）和跨星形成复合物的多个恒星世代。在银河磁盘中解释恒星形成方案始终是有问题的，因为示踪物对象的多种选择，多样化的观察方法以及有关观察数据的数量，质量和完整性的问题。为了克服这一问题，将合并新的和现有的数据，以生成银河系年轻簇，OB缔合和早期型田间恒星的目录，可以计算出光度可视性。该目录将是均匀距离和颜色过剩的极好来源，因此在研究银河系螺旋结构至5-6 kpc的研究中是一个可靠的起点。该项目不仅是因为其对天文学领域的贡献，而且还因为其主要是本科机构中教师和学生的可行性。