Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T14:17:39.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Star Formation: From OB Associations to Protostars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Charles J. Lada
Charles J. Lada*
Affiliation:
Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The study of star formation is a relatively young discipline of the field of astronomy. Up until the mid point of the twentieth century only a most rudimentary understanding of the subject was possible. This is because prior to that time there did not exist any substantive body of empirical data which could be used to critically test even the most basic hypotheses concerning stellar origins. However, as a result of impressive advances in observational technology and in our understanding of stellar evolution during the last forty years, the subject of star formation has developed into one of the most important branches of modern astrophysical research. A large body of observational data and a considerable literature pertaining to this subject now exist and a significant fraction of the international astronomical community devotes their efforts towards trying to comprehend the origins of stars and planets. Yet, despite these efforts we have yet to observationally identify, with any certainty, a single object in the process of stellar birth! Moreover, we have not yet produced a viable theory of star formation, one capable of being tested and refined by critical experiment. In many ways, stellar birth is as much a mystery today as it was forty years ago. However, there can be little doubt that during the last two decades truly revolutionary progress has been made in the quest to understand the star formation process in our galaxy. This apparent paradox in the state of our knowledge concerning stellar origins is resolved with the realization that the history of the study of star formation has been a history of the study of progressively earlier and earlier stages of stellar evolution. Indeed, it is in precisely this area of endeavor that we have learned so much.

Type
I. Star Forming Processes in the Solar Neighborhood
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 115: Star Forming Regions , 1987 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1987 

References

Adams, F. C., and Shu, F. H. 1985, Ap. J., 296, 655.Google Scholar
Adams, F. C., and Shu, F. H. 1986, submitted to Ap. J. Google Scholar
Adams, F. C., Lada, C. J., and Shu, F. H. 1986, submitted to Ap. J. Google Scholar
Ambartsumian, V. A. 1947, Stellar Evolution and Astrophysics, (Armenian Academy of Science).Google Scholar
Ambartsumian, V. A. 1955 Observatory, 75, 72.Google Scholar
Benson, P. J., Myers, P. C., and Wright, E. L. 1984, Ap. J., 279, L27.Google Scholar
Blaauw, A. 1964, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap., 2, 213.Google Scholar
Blitz, L. 1980, in Grant Molecular Clouds in the Galaxy, eds. Solomon, P.M. and Edwards, M.G. (Oxford: Pergamon), p. 211.Google Scholar
Bodenheimer, P. and Black, D.C. 1978, in Protostars and Planets, ed. Gehrels, T. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press), p 288.Google Scholar
Bok, B. J. 1934 Harvard Circ. No. 384.Google Scholar
Cohen, M., and Kuhi, L. V. 1979, Ap. J. Suppl., 41, 743.Google Scholar
Cohen, M., Harvey, P. M., Schwartz, R. D., and Wilking, B. A. 1984, Ap. J., 278, 671.Google Scholar
Dieter, N. 1976, Ap. J., 199, 289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duerr, R., Imhoff, C. L., and Lada, C. J. 1982, Ap. J., 261, 135.Google Scholar
Elias, J. H. 1978, Ap. J., 224, 453.Google Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G. 1982, in Formation of Planetary Systems, in Brahic, P. Toulouse: Cepadues-Editions) p. 63.Google Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G. 1983, M.N.R.A.S., 203, 1011.Google Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G. 1985, preprint.Google Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G., and Lada, C. J. 1976, A.J., 81, 1089.Google Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G., and Lada, C. J. 1977, Ap. J., 214, 725.Google Scholar
Evans, N. J., Levreault, R., and Harvey, P. M. 1986, Ap. J., 301, 894.Google Scholar
Grasdalen, G. L., Strom, S. E., Strom, K. M., Capps, R. W., Thompson, D., and Castelaz, M. 1984, Ap. J., 283, L57.Google Scholar
Harvey, P. M. 1985, in Protostars and Planets II, eds. Black, D. C., and Matthews, M. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press), p. 484.Google Scholar
Harvey, P. M., Thronson, H. A., and Gatley, I. 1979, Ap. J., 231, 115.Google Scholar
Herbig, G. H. 1962, Adv. Astron. Astrophys., 1, 47.Google Scholar
Jones, B. F. and Herbig, G. H. 1979, A.J., 84, 1872.Google Scholar
Lada, C. J. 1985, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap., 23, 267.Google Scholar
Lada, C. J., Margulis, M., and Dearborn, D. 1984, Ap. J., 285, 141.Google Scholar
Lada, C. J., Elmegreen, B. G., Cong, H-I., and Thaddeus, P. 1978, Ap. J. Letters, 226, 39.Google Scholar
Lada, C. J., and Wilking, B. A. 1984, Ap. J., 287, 610.Google Scholar
Larson, R. B. 1973, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap., 11, 219.Google Scholar
Lynden-Bell, D., and Pringle, J. E. 1974, M.N.R.A.S., 168, 603.Google Scholar
Mathieu, R. D. 1983, Ap. J. Letters, 267, 97.Google Scholar
Mathieu, R. D., and Latham, D. 1986, personnel communication.Google Scholar
Myers, P. C. 1985, in Protostars and Planets II, eds. Black, D. C. and Matthews, M. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press) p. 81.Google Scholar
Myers, P. C., and Benson, P. J. 1983, Ap. J., 266, 309.Google Scholar
Oort, J. H. 1954, Bull. Astron. Inst. Netherlands, 12, 177.Google Scholar
Opik, E. J. 1953, Irish Astron. J., 2, 219.Google Scholar
Roberts, M. S. 1957, P.A.S.P., 69, 59.Google Scholar
Rydgren, A. E., and Cohen, M. 1985, in Protostars and Planets II, eds. Black, D. C. and Matthews, M. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press), p. 371.Google Scholar
Rydgren, A. E., Strom, S. E., and Strom, K. M. 1976, Ap. J. Suppl., 30, 307.Google Scholar
Thronson, H. A., Lada, C. J., and Hewagama, T. 1985, Ap. J., 297, 662.Google Scholar
von Hoerner, S. 1968, in Interstellar Ionized Hydrogen, ed. Terzian, V. (New York: Benjamin), p. 101.Google Scholar
Whitworth, A. P. 1979, M.N.R.A.S., 186, 59.Google Scholar
Wilking, B. A., and Lada, C J. 1983, Ap. J., 274, 698.Google Scholar
Wilking, B. A., and Lada, C. J. 1985, in Protostars and Planets II, eds. Black, D. C. and Matthews, M. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press) p. 297.Google Scholar
Wynn-Williams, C. G. 1982, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap., 20, 587.Google Scholar
Young, E., Lada, C. J., and Wilking, B. A. 1986, Ap. J. Letters, submitted.Google Scholar