Eli Bressert (CASS)

Star Formation: The good, the bad, and the ugly -- Eli Bressert Colloquium

Abstract

Do stars form in isolation or in clusters? Why do stars have a characteristic mass of ~1 solar mass? How do some of the most massive stellar clusters like globular clusters form? The study of star formation has progressed significantly in the last few decades thanks to infrared to radio telescopes. Subsequently, research has leveraged these facilities to link molecular clouds and cores to pre-main-sequence stars.

The broad picture of star formation is well understood, but there are important details that require further investigations. In this talk I will discuss star formation in the Milky Way and the local Universe. We will take a tour through topics on massive star formation and the initial mass function, isolated versus clustered star formation, cluster formation, the formation of habitable planets in stellar clusters, and question some basic prescriptions on star formation.