I study emission from molecules in interstellar clouds forming stars,
as
well as in the outer shells of evolved stars which are returning their
stuff to the interstellar medium. The image above shows molecules and
dust
near the very young object VLA1623. Yellow-green shows the dust
emission
at a wavelength of 1.3mm taken at the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope on Mauna Kea (next to the Caltech Submillimeter
Observatory )
by
Andre. Dust and gas accrete onto the young star on scales too small to
image
until the Atacama Large Millimeter
Array is built. Gravitational energy powers jets flying from the
poles of the
protostar, which push aside ambient gas. Blue delineates blushifted
gas, in this case CO molecules, shot from
the poles of the dust-enshrouded young star while red delineates
redshifted
CO emission, as imaged by the IRAM
30m telescope. The protostar has
accumulated less than a solar mass so far, to shine with less than one
solar
luminosity at the 160pc distance to the source. The complex dynamics of
the
region can be noted in the image of the Rho Ophiuchi Molecular Cloud
made by Gary Fuller and myself on the (late and lamented) NRAO 12m
radiotelescope , in an image created by Dave Copeland. VLA1623 lies in
the colorful northwest part
of this image, which is color coded by velocity. Data courtesy of
Philippe
Andre; I superposed them to form the image above. For recent research
on
star formation, please see The Star
Formation Newsletter edited by Bo Reipurth.
For more images illustrating areas of my research, check out my science page. For a primer, visit
molecular astrophysics .
For a study of the constellation Cancer, I brought home some
crabs to utilize as finding charts at Slacktide, my home on Sturgeon
Creek at the Rappahannock in Deltaville, Va. A
finding chart will guide you right to me!.