Award Abstract # 1748571
CAREER: The Role of Stellar Feedback in Star Formation

NSF Org: AST
Division Of Astronomical Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Initial Amendment Date: August 30, 2017
Latest Amendment Date: August 30, 2017
Award Number: 1748571
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Sarah Higdon
AST
 Division Of Astronomical Sciences
MPS
 Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date: September 1, 2017
End Date: August 31, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $429,054.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $429,054.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2017 = $429,054.00
History of Investigator:
  • Stella Offner (Principal Investigator)
    offner@gmail.com
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Texas at Austin
110 INNER CAMPUS DR
AUSTIN
TX  US  78712-1139
(512)471-6424
Sponsor Congressional District: 25
Primary Place of Performance: University of Texas at Austin
101 E. 27th St.
Austin
TX  US  78712-1532
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
25
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): V6AFQPN18437
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): CAREER: FACULTY EARLY CAR DEV
Primary Program Source: 01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1045, 1206
Program Element Code(s): 104500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.049

ABSTRACT

The investigator's group will write detailed computer-models of how stars are born from gas in our galaxy. All stars are born in large clouds of gas in galaxies, which condense to form stars and planets. The investigator will write new computer models for the physics that determines the mass of new stars. She will also study how neighboring young stars influence each other and their birth environment by injecting energy into their surroundings. Evidence suggests our Sun formed together with thousands of siblings, which may have shaped our Sun?s properties. However, why stars like our Sun have the masses they do remains debated. Her team will model how stars interact with their birth environment and test different theories for the origin of star masses. The investigator will produce synthetic observations of the models and compare these to telescope observations of star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy. The educational goal of the project is to increase participation and diversity in STEM. The investigator will use the World Wide Telescope (WWT) educational software to communicate recent exciting astronomy discoveries to the public. She will use WWT to create interactive labs for several local underserved populations, will also organize research training and organize an annual star formation symposia.

The proposal aims to explore two fundamental questions in star formation: How do stars obtain their masses? What sets the star formation rate in molecular clouds? The PI will address these questions by performing multi-physics numerical simulations of forming star clusters including outflow, wind and radiation feedback. The three key science objectives are to 1) constrain the importance of core masses in setting the stellar initial mass function, 2) evaluate the influence of feedback on turbulence and star formation efficiency, and 3) bridge simulations and observations using "apples-to-apples" comparisons. The investigator will produce synthetic observations of the models and compare directly to observations, harnessing thousands of hours of current and planned large- scale surveys probing dense gas, proto-stellar outflows with very fine resolution.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 35)
Betti, S. K. and Gutermuth, R. and Offner, S. and Wilson, G. and Sokol, A. and Pokhrel, R. "The Robustness of Synthetic Observations in Producing Observed Core Properties: Predictions for the TolTEC Clouds to Cores Legacy Survey" The Astrophysical Journal , v.923 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac2666 Citation Details
Chen, Hope How-Huan and Pineda, Jaime E. and Goodman, Alyssa A. and Burkert, Andreas and Offner, Stella S. and Friesen, Rachel K. and Myers, Philip C. and Alves, Felipe and Arce, Héctor G. and Caselli, Paola and Chacón-Tanarro, Ana and Chen, Michael Chun- "Droplets. I. Pressure-dominated Coherent Structures in L1688 and B18" The Astrophysical Journal , v.877 , 2019 10.3847/1538-4357/ab1a40 Citation Details
Choudhury, Spandan and Pineda, Jaime E. and Caselli, Paola and Offner, Stella S. and Rosolowsky, Erik and Friesen, Rachel K. and Redaelli, Elena and Chacón-Tanarro, Ana and Shirley, Yancy and Punanova, Anna and Kirk, Helen "Transition from coherent cores to surrounding cloud in L1688" Astronomy & Astrophysics , v.648 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039897 Citation Details
Farias, Juan_P and Tan, Jonathan_C "Star cluster formation from turbulent clumps III. Across the mass spectrum" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , v.523 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1532 Citation Details
Gaches, Brandt A. and Offner, Stella S. and Bisbas, Thomas G. "The Astrochemical Impact of Cosmic Rays in Protoclusters. II. CI-to-H 2 and CO-to-H 2 Conversion Factors" The Astrophysical Journal , v.883 , 2019 10.3847/1538-4357/ab3c5c Citation Details
Gaches, Brandt A. and Offner, Stella S. and Bisbas, Thomas G. "The Astrochemical Impact of Cosmic Rays in Protoclusters. I. Molecular Cloud Chemistry" The Astrophysical Journal , v.878 , 2019 10.3847/1538-4357/ab20c7 Citation Details
Gaches, Brandt A. and Walch, Stefanie and Offner, Stella S. and Münker, Carsten "Aluminum-26 Enrichment in the Surface of Protostellar Disks Due to Protostellar Cosmic Rays" The Astrophysical Journal , v.898 , 2020 10.3847/1538-4357/ab9a38 Citation Details
Girichidis, Philipp and Offner, Stella S. and Kritsuk, Alexei G. and Klessen, Ralf S. and Hennebelle, Patrick and Kruijssen, J. M. and Krause, Martin G. and Glover, Simon C. and Padovani, Marco "Physical Processes in Star Formation" Space Science Reviews , v.216 , 2020 10.1007/s11214-020-00693-8 Citation Details
Grudi, Michael Y and Guszejnov, Dávid and Hopkins, Philip F and Offner, Stella S and Faucher-Giguére, Claude-André "STARFORGE: Toward a comprehensive numerical model of star cluster formation and feedback" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1347 Citation Details
Grudi, Michael Y. and Guszejnov, Dávid and Offner, Stella S. R. and Rosen, Anna L. and Raju, Aman N. and Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André and Hopkins, Philip F. "The dynamics and outcome of star formation with jets, radiation, winds, and supernovae in concert" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , v.512 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac526 Citation Details
Guszejnov, Dávid and Grudi, Michael Y and Hopkins, Philip F and Offner, Stella S and Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André "Can magnetized turbulence set the mass scale of stars?" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , v.496 , 2020 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1883 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 35)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Intellectual Merit: 

The story of a star's life is written at birth: its initial mass determines whether it is likely to have a stellar companion, whether it forms planets and those planets are hospitable for life, the length of its lifetime and how it will eventually die. The distribution of stellar masses at birth is one of the most fundamental quantities in astronomy.  

The research supported by this award used numerical models of forming groups of stars, including a variety of essential physics like gravity, radiation, and magnetic fields, to uncover how star masses are determined. A key focus of the work explored how forming stars impact their surroundings through mass outflows, winds, radiation, and supernovae ("stellar feedback"). 

The project team demonstrated that stellar feedback plays several critical roles. First, mass outflows from forming stars disperse dense material around forming stars, which eventually halts accretion. These outflows are responsible for setting the typical stellar mass, which is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.  Second, stellar feedback, especially feedback from more massive stars, is responsible for ending star formation in the birth gas cloud. As a result, star formation in the galaxy is inefficient, such that only a few percent of the dense gas goes on to form stars. Third, feedback self-regulates how stars form. Consequently, the distribution of star masses does not depend strongly on local environment and is mostly insensitive to changes in gas temperature, magnetic field strength, and the local level of radiation.

In addition to carrying out numerical modeling, observations of star-forming regions in the Solar neighborhood were performed that investigated the properties of the gas and young stars. These studies shed light on the conditions of the region that formed our own Sun many billions of years ago.

Broader Impacts: 

The Principle Investigator used WorldWide Telescope (WWT), a virtual observatory built on actual telescope observations, as a vehicle for teaching astronomy and public outreach. WWT lessons were developed for undergraduate astronomy classes for non-majors.  WWT tools were created and introduced to local high school teachers to use in their classes. 

 Movies, presentations, and blog posts about the project results and related astronomy topics were created for the public.

A key focus of the project was promoting informal and formal mentoring of women and underrepresented minorities in order to increase diversity in STEM. Seven undergraduates, two graduate students and three postdocs were mentored and trained in research methods. More than 50 undergraduates received professional mentoring through a program pairing undergraduates with astronomy graduate student mentors. 


 


Last Modified: 11/29/2023
Modified by: Stella Offner

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