Western Kentucky University
A Multi-wavelength Analysis of Cold Evolving Interstellar Clouds
Institution
Western Kentucky University
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Steven Gibson
Abstract
Since galaxies are essential parts of the universe’s structure, their internal workings, like star formation and the interstellar medium (ISM), are important to understand. The ISM is mostly made up of atomic and molecular gas. At some critical point in the clouds’ development, the atomic gas will cool and form molecular gas, which can then lead to gravitational collapse and new star formation. Certain properties like density and temperature are important to understanding this process, but are hard to determine without making various assumptions. To test the effects of these assumptions, we ran property analyses using different input parameters and computations involving interstellar dust and carbon monoxide (CO) data. From the data, we could see how different components of the ISM matched up and affected numerical values. A statistical overview of our results, including variations of cloud properties in different regions of the Galaxy to look for environmental influences on star formation will be presented.
A Multi-wavelength Analysis of Cold Evolving Interstellar Clouds
Since galaxies are essential parts of the universe’s structure, their internal workings, like star formation and the interstellar medium (ISM), are important to understand. The ISM is mostly made up of atomic and molecular gas. At some critical point in the clouds’ development, the atomic gas will cool and form molecular gas, which can then lead to gravitational collapse and new star formation. Certain properties like density and temperature are important to understanding this process, but are hard to determine without making various assumptions. To test the effects of these assumptions, we ran property analyses using different input parameters and computations involving interstellar dust and carbon monoxide (CO) data. From the data, we could see how different components of the ISM matched up and affected numerical values. A statistical overview of our results, including variations of cloud properties in different regions of the Galaxy to look for environmental influences on star formation will be presented.