Projects at the International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Code: KM04

Understanding the circumstances of massive star formation is one of the great challenges of modern astronomy. In the last years, our view of massive star forming regions has dramatically been changed by Galactic plane surveys covering centimeter to infrared wavelengths. These surveys enable us for the first time to study ALL evolutionary stages of massive star formation in an unbiased way. With the exciting results of the new submm/FIR surveys from the ground (ATLASGAL) and space (Hi-GAL) the massive and cold dust clumps from which massive cluster form are now detected in an unbiased way. Complementary, the EVLA will allow incredibly powerful and comprehensive radio- wavelength surveys of, both, the ionized and the molecular tracers of star formation in the Galactic plane. In this project, the extremely wideband (4-8 GHz) new C-band receivers of the EVLA will be used for an unbiased survey to find and characterize star-forming regions in the Galaxy. This survey of the Galactic plane, that is now ongoing, will detect tell-tale tracers of star formation: compact, ultra-, and hyper-compact Hii regions and molecular masers which trace different stages of early stellar evolution and will pinpoint the very centers of the early phase of star-forming activity. Combined with the submm/infrared surveys it will offer a nearly complete census of the number, luminosities and masses of massive star forming clusters in a large range of evolutionary stages and provide a unique dataset with true legacy value for a global perspective on star formation in our Galaxy.

Contact: Dr. Friedrich Wyrowski (wyrowski@mpifr- bonn.mpg.de), Prof. Dr. Karl Menten (kmenten@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
Site: Bonn, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy Group