Simulating Star Formation on a Galactic Scale

By Clare Dobbs

Powerful calculations provide an unprecedented view of stellar birthplaces.

This Article From Issue

March-April 2014

Volume 102, Number 2

Page 132

DOI: 10.1511/2014.107.132

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Spiral galaxies are continuously evolving. They rotate, their pinwheel arms winding and stretching and splitting apart. Their constituent stars change as well, forming, growing old, and dying—sometimes simply fading away, sometimes with a supernova bang.

An image of the inner region of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy (left), shows star clusters as bright red points and clouds of gas and dust as dark regions. Researchers can now create computer models that help to link the large-scale dynamics of galaxies with the small-scale processes of star formation. A simulation of a spiral galaxy disc (right) shows the distribution of gas. Collisions between clumps of gas and their own self-gravity arranges the material into dense molecular clouds, where new stars form.

Illustration by Tom Dunne. Image at left courtesy of NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Image at right is courtesy of the author.

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