Speaker
Steve Longmore
(Liverpool John Moore University)
Description
The formation environment of stars in massive, dense stellar
clusters is similar to the environment of stars forming in
galaxies at a redshift of 1 - 3, at the peak star formation
rate density of the Universe. As massive clusters are still
forming at the present day at a fraction of the distance to
high-redshift galaxies they offer an opportunity to
understand the processes controlling star formation and
feedback in conditions similar to those in which most stars
in the Universe formed. In this talk I will outline recent
efforts trying to understand massive cluster formation in
the Milky Way. In particular I will describe a system of
massive, dense clusters and their progenitor gas clouds in
the centre of the Milky Way, and outline how detailed
observations of this and similar systems may be able to: (i)
help answer some of the fundamental open questions in star
formation, and (ii) quantify how stellar feedback couples to
the surrounding interstellar medium in this high-pressure,
high-redshift analogue environment.
Primary author
Steve Longmore
(Liverpool John Moore University)
