Webinar 11 A Course on "Formation of Stars"

Lecture 1: The Matter between Stars  PPT and VIDEO
Lecture 2 Physical Processes PPT and VIDEO
Lecture 3 Evolution of Protostars PPT and VIDEO
Lecture 4 Critical Observations  PPT and VIDEO
Lecture 5 New Worlds in the Universe  PPT and VIDEO
This course consisted of these five lectures by Prof. B. G. Anandarao. These were made live on 14^th, 15^th, 18^th, 19^th and 20^th March 2019 respectively during 06:00 to 07:00 UT. 

About the speaker (Prof. B.G. Anandarao):

Professor B G Anandarao did MSc (1971) at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam and PhD (1978) at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (Thesis: The Dynamics of Equatorial Ionoshpere). He did Post-Doctoral Research at PRL (1978-79) and at Observatoire de Meudon, Meudon, France (1979-80). In 1980 he joined PRL as Faculty member and superannuated in 2010 as Senior Professor. He served as Chairman of Astronomy Astrophysics Division and on several committees of PRL. He published more than 100 research papers in refereed journals and guided 7 PhD students. He is a member of IAU and ASI. His research interests are Star Formation and Evolution; Infrared and Optical Astronomy and Spectroscopy; and Earth’s Upper Atmosphere.

Details of the webinar “A Course on Formation of Stars”:

Stars are the building blocks of a galaxy. Stars determine the luminosity and chemical evolution of a galaxy. Furthermore, the formation of planets is itself linked with the formation of their parent star. The formation of stars is therefore one of the most fundamental problems of astrophysics that needs to be explored and understood. With the advent of astronomical observations at infrared wavelength regime for the past 50 years or so, astronomers have made giant strides in understanding the physical processes that lead to formation of stars. Here in this course, we describe the ingredients for star formation, physical processes of star formation, properties of proto-stellar objects and critical observations that lead to understanding of the mechanisms of star formation. We also describe the recent advances in the exploration of extra-solar planets. Lecture-wise summary is given below:

Lecture 1: The Matter between Stars: We describe here star formation on a macroscopic scale. Interstellar matter (ISM) or the matter between stars occurs in many phases of widely varying physical conditions. Stars are formed from the fragmentation and collapse of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC) in ISM. Physical conditions in GMCs provide important clues to star formation mechanisms. We describe the GMCs and determination of their physical parameters using atomic, molecular and solid-state emission or absorption features.

Lecture 2: Physical Processes:  Here we describe star formation on a microscopic scale – the basic mechanisms that may lead to formation of a star under varying physical environments. We discuss the basic differences in the formation of high-mass stars in comparison with the formation of low-mass stars; and the conditions under which star formation may occur in isolation or in clusters. We discuss the initial mass function.

Lecture 3: Evolution of Protostars: We describe here the properties of a proto-stellar object or a Young stellar object (YSO) or a protostar - physical processes that lead to the formation of a fully developed star that burns hydrogen at its core releasing nuclear energy. We discuss typical manifestations of a low mass protostar and address the question as to whether these are exhibited by high-mass stars. We also describe various time scales of proto-stellar evolution.

Lecture 4: Critical Observations: We discuss here the critical observations on star forming regions and protostars in order to understand the physics of the macro-scale and micro-scale formation mechanisms and their manifestations. We also describe a few observational techniques, particularly in the infrared wavelength region - that are used by observers to infer physical evolution status of protostars.

Lecture 5: New Worlds in the Universe: The topic of Extra-solar planets is currently a truly cutting-edge technology-dependent observational endeavour with unprecedented precision. We describe various techniques used for detecting planets around stars other than the Sun in our Galaxy. We discuss several crucial observational findings resulted from the exploration so far and argue as to what more needs to be learnt in future. Finally the definition and identification of habitable or life-sustaining planets will be presented.