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Star Formation
A talk by Eli Bressert.
Friday March 19th 7:30pm
In the last 100 years astronomers have made leaps and bounds in
understanding the universe. Spiral galaxies which were once thought to
be nebula within the Milky Way are now known to be distant neighbours
over cosmic scales. The universe was believed to be a static system of
stars and planets, but we now know that the universe is a much more
tumultuous environment where stars are born and die with an explosion,
galaxies cannibalise one another, and dark energy may dominate the
universe in the distant future.
We have made significant progress over the last 40 years in
understanding the origin of stars, yet much remains elusive. We have
theories of how they should form, but observing the process directly
has proven to be very difficult because of the dust and gas in the
star forming regions, like Orion. With help from modern infrared and
X-ray telescopes, we are peering into these dusty environments for the
first time. I will give a tour of the telescopes that have made their
contributions to the field of star formation. Beginning my study in
astronomy in Hawaii, working as a science imager for the Chandra X-ray
Telescope, researching star formation on the Spitzer Space Telescope I
will cover several aspects of astronomy as we explore how stars form:
the science, experience and public outreach.
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