Latest research news
-
Interview for Servus TV (Hubble - Mission Universum)
Here is my contribution to the "Hubble - Mission Universum" series by the Austrian TV channel Servus TV. In it I create a star with my bare hands, while discussing my research in star and planet formation. I confess I was impressed by the quality of the series, well done, Servus TV.
Posted Sep 29, 2011 4:07 AM by Joao Alves
-
Computational Star Formation (Book)
The rapid advance of computer capabilities over the last two decades has opened up a new field of numerical simulations in which detailed physical models can be made to represent the most complex processes. "Computational Star Formation" reviews the latest techniques and results of numerical simulations relevant to interstellar gas dynamics and star formation. Topics range from dynamics to radiation and visualization, as applied to both local and cosmological problems. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in numerical astrophysics. It's really good. Buy it here!
Posted Sep 22, 2011 4:58 AM by Joao Alves
-
Grabing the Bull by its tail (Star Formation in the Taurus Filament)
Deep extinction mapping of the Taurus filament with the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope. The filament is more fragmented that originally thought and has a high mass-per-length value of M line = 17M sun pc-1, making it star formation prone. The dense core mass function is similar to the one in the Pipe Nebula (Alves et al. 2007), in case you were wondering. Congratulations to Markus Schmalz for leading this effort successfully.
Posted Sep 22, 2011 4:49 AM by Joao Alves
-
VLT-MAD observations of the core of 30 Doradus
The next generation of large telescopes will need Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics. But will this new technique work? 30 Dor is one of the regions that always reminds me of how little we know about star formation. It is an impressive star factory, unlike any of our Milkyway, and it is also the perfect target to test Multiconjugate Adaptive optics Demonstrator (MAD) at the Very Large Telescope, with the Near-Infrared camera CAMCAO. The technique works, and the paper presenting first results, that contradict results from optical wavelengths, is here.
Posted Apr 26, 2011 2:54 PM by Joao Alves
-
On the Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds
Both the yield and rate of star formation can vary considerably in clouds, independent of their mass and size, but above a certain threshold in column density clouds become predictable. In this paper we find that the star formation rate is proportional to the cloud mass above an extinction threshold of AK ≈ 0.8 mag, corresponding to a gas surface density threshold of Σgas ≈ 116M⊙ pc2. (or volume densities about 104 cm-3). In other words, once you have dense gas you have stars. The more dense gas you have, the more the stars you'll produce. Understanding star formation is understanding how nature transforms diffuse gas into dense gas. Easy.
Posted Apr 26, 2011 2:56 PM by Joao Alves
| |
|
