event
Wednesday 18 Feb 2009: Star Formation in the W3 Giant Molecular Cloud
Danae Polychroni - Liverpool John Moores
Physics, 4th Floor interaction area 12:00-13:00
The star formation process is one of the most fundamental questions in Astronomy, as it results in the Initial Mass Function (IMF) that all galaxy evolution models and stellar population synthesis models assume. However, we still don't understand fundamental issues of the star forming process. We present here new data obtained with HARP-B on the JCMT as well as Spitzer data of the W3 Giant Molecular Cloud. We use this data in conjunction with SCUBA and FCRAO data in a multiwavelength study of this molecular cloud, to better our understanding of the star formation process. We observe, for the first time, a temperature gradient across the cloud that may indicate an evolutionary sequence in the observed star forming regions. We also find IR counterparts to identified SCUBA cores. We have measured their luminosities and colours and study the distribution of these parameters in the cloud.
