Dr James Michael de Buizer (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory)

Born in shadows: The quest to understand massive star formation - Dr James Michael de Buizer Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Massive stars are born in the most obscured regions of giant
molecular clouds, making it extremely difficult to observe them. Despite
decades of trying, we understand extremely little about the process of
massive star formation. The two most popular ideas of how massive stars
might form are through the processes of accretion or mergers. Unfortunately,
we have limited tools at our disposal that allow us to observe massive stars
during their formation to help us differentiate between these two scenarios.
I will show how observations in the infrared and of maser emission in
regions of massive star formation have proven to be extremely helpful in
this cause.