Jose Gomez (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC (Granada, Spain))

Studies of the Cepheus A region: exploring the formation of high-mass stars - Jose Gomez Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Our current understanding of the processes leading to the formation of high-mass stars is far more scarce than in the case of low-mass ones. The Cepheus A region provides a good oportunity to study these processes in detail, since it is one of the closest high-mass star forming regions and shows a wealth of observational characteristics associated with star formation activity (e.g., maser emission, high-velocity outflows, HII regions). I will present a summary of the work carried out by our group on this region for more than 25 years, mostly focusing on high-resolution radio interferometry observations. Our more recent results confirm that high-mass stars may form in a way similar to their low-mass counterparts (a classical protostar+accretion disk+collimated jet system), although there could be significant differences in the very early phases, with episodes of nearly isotropic mass ejections.