Star Formation in the Cosmological Context
Abstract
We are in the midst of an observational revolution in studying star formation in galaxies. The combination of large groundbased optical emission-line and radio surveys with powerful new space-based capabilities in the ultraviolet and infrared are providing a wealth of new information on the star formation properties of galaxies spanning all types, luminosities, and redshifts. The advent of truly multi-wavelength observations has also produced a new suite of star formation diagnostics with much higher accuracy than could be attained previously. These new observations reveal star formation to be a virtually ubiquitous phenomenon in galaxies, seen across nearly all morphological types and masses, and extending from within parsecs of galactic nuclei to far beyond the boundaries of the main visible disks. The total star formation rates of galaxies, whether expressed in absolute terms or normalized per unit mass or area, show millionfold variations, and in physical terms span the range from quiescent systems to those forming stars at the maximum rates allowed by their internal dynamics. Nevertheless, this diverse range of integrated properties, as well as the variations in star formation activity within individual galaxies, can be described by a simple set of empirical scaling laws. Observations of this kind are important for understanding the large scale physical processes that trigger and regulate star formation in our Galaxy and others, and as vital physical inputs for models and simulations of galaxy formation and evolution. This talk will review the recent progress in this subject, and highlight the most important challenges that remain.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AAS...21111701K