Yale Astronomy Post-Doctoral Fellows Seminar Series - Dr. Shuo Kong

Event time: 
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - 2:30pm
Speaker: 
Dr. Shuo Kong
Speaker Institution: 
Yale University
Talk Title: 
Massive star and cluster formation in the ALMA era: what do we learn by comparing infrared dark cloud with Orion
Event description: 

Star formation is crucial to astrophysics in many ways. Among the key questions in star formation, the stellar initial mass function and the formation of massive stars are the two outstanding issues to be conquered. I will introduce how we tackle the two questions through the study of Galactic molecular clouds. Specifically, by comparing two famous clouds at very different evolutionary stages, I will discuss how we can disentangle the theoretical debates on the two puzzling, yet charming, questions. This is important in understanding whether star formation is ordered or chaotic, slow or fast. The study is possible thanks to the recent revolution in radio interferometry. I will briefly introduce how we combine total-power data with interferometric data to produce high spatial dynamic range images. The routine is being implemented into CASA. I will also discuss how dust polarization measurement can play a pivotal role in showing the importance of magnetic fields. 

Location: 
Watson Center A-51 See map
60 Sachem Street
New Haven, CT 06511