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

利用动物宇宙的发现来加深我们对低质量和高质量恒星形成的理解

• 批准号: 2307806
• 负责人: Kathryn Devine
• 金额: $ 41.95万
• 依托单位: The College of Idaho
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307806&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Leveraging; Zooniverse; Discovery; Bridge; Our

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.

大多数恒星形成的组为簇，其中包含大小和质量非常不同的恒星。天文学家希望理解只有一些簇形成巨大恒星的原因，这些恒星的质量是我们太阳的八倍以上。簇中的恒星群体在簇随时间变化的方式中起着重要作用。例如，巨大的恒星用强烈的恒星风和超新星影响周围的环境。因此，了解决定形成恒星质量的条件对于理解星系随着时间而变化的方式很重要。该项目将解决一个问题：“气云的特性会影响群集中形成的恒星质量？”为此，项目研究的对象称为黄色球（YBS），该对象是由公民科学项目参与者最初发现的。研究团队开发了一项活动，为介绍天文学学生提供了一种为项目做出贡献并获得有意义的研究经验的方法。宣传在宗教，礼拜场所，行星和媒体渠道将教育多元化的公众受众有关该项目的发现。调查人员将使用由银河系平台上的银河系用户确定的6,000多个YB的数据库。 YBS是年轻的恒星形成区域（SFR）的路标，可追踪广泛的质量（10-10,000太阳能）和发光度（10-1,000,000个太阳能发光度）。 YB揭示了现有目录中缺少的许多SFR，这些SFR往往会偏向最大和/或发光的区域。研究人员将通过与恒星形成目录进行交叉匹配YB来生成YB性质的目录；确定与分子云关联的YB距离；从目录关联和我们的衍生距离确定YB环境的物理特性；并进行多波长红外（IR）光度法。 YB颜色，物理特性及其分类之间的趋势将通过统计分析，光谱能量分布的建模以及机器学习技术的应用来确定。这项研究将阐明描绘出和不产生巨大恒星的环境的物理阈值，并可能仅使用IR通量使用IR通量来对SFR进行分类，以对SFR进行分类。该项目共同资助了由天文学的计划和统计的统计计划（EPERS）奖励的计划（EPERS）奖励（EPERS），以刺激了SCOR的统计数据。使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响标准，认为通过评估被认为是宝贵的支持。