Yasuo Fukui and Akiko Kawamura (Nagoya University, Japan)

CO clouds in the Magellanic System - Yasuo Fukui and Akiko Kawamura Colloquium

ATNF Basement Meeting Room

Abstract

The Clouds offer an ideal laboratory to learn how stars form and how the interstellar medium evolves in galaxies. One of the key issues is to have a complete understanding on dense molecular gas where all stars form. Toward approaching this goal, we have completed a CO survey of the Magellanic system including the LMC, SMC and the bridge at a spatial resolution of ~50pc with NANTEN, a 4m sub-mm/mm telescope. In this talk, we will present the CO distribution over the Magellanic system and discuss what we have learned on star formation including a possible link to primordial star formation with low metallicity.