Astronomers at Kent have been awarded time on the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to study the earliest stages in the formation of high-mass stars.
Dr James Urquhart and Aashini Patel have been awarded three days of time on the ATCA to study one of the most elusive stages in the formation of high-mass stars. This is referred to the hyper-compact HII region stage and is where the accretion onto the young star is halted and the final mass of the star is set.
These observations will provide high-resolution images of the hot ionized gas that forms around these high-mass star and will allow us to determine the physical conditions (density and temperature) and the kinematics (velocity and energy) of the gas. Currently only a ~20 of these types of objects have been determined, which hampers our understanding of the processes involved and these observations will lead to a significant increase in the number known and provide key insight into this important stage.
Update provided by Dr James Urquhart.