Star Formation - comprehensive review paper

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

I was going to attach a .pdf file of a recent review of Star Formation : McKee and Ostriker, 2007, ARAA, 45, 565

But even zipped, it is over 1 MB, so I don't suppose I can attach it.

It is a theoretical approach, giving comprehensive details of our understanding (or, more properly, our lack of understanding!) of how stars are formed.

However, I have found a link to the Annual Reviews of Astronomy & Astrophysics website that seems to "get under the radar" of their very restrictive access policy. You may be able to download the pdf file from here:

http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/....051806.110602

It this doesn't work, then obviously I could email you the file.

( ARAA's lawyers might give me a call about this, but they can't expect amateurs to pay 200 dollars a volume from their non-existent research budgets!!)

cheers,
bad galaxy man

madbadgalaxyman's wisdom of the day:
"Virtually zero progress on star formation in ten years! Perhaps we should not overestimate the intelligence of professional astronomers...."

[rally]

Thanks Rob,

It downloads OK.

Light reading eh !
But very interesting

It wasnt something that I could digest with my breakfast that is for sure, the executive summary was more at my level !

But it seems that star formation is about as complicated as it can be with so many different and complex mechanisms all at work simultaneously and sometimes in complete opposition to one another and not just physically but temporally too !

Would have been nice to see a few more diagrams to graphically illustrate the effects of these explanations and theories.

So I guess its hardly surprising that they haven't been able to easily decode and model the whole process, given most of these processes seems to be at the forefront of human understanding.

Could be a little longer before we get that unified, simplified theory !

Rally

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

rally,

Your characterization of star formation as "about as complicated as it can be" is accurate.

Trying to figure out how stars form turns out to be a lot like meteorology and weather forecasting, only much much much much harder.....the variety of phases of matter and chemical compositions, the variety of temperatures and pressures, is much greater than in Earth's atmosphere.
And, to make it even more complex, the variety of spatial scales that have a bearing on how stars form is gigantic......from the intergalactic gas that rains down on the disk component of our galaxy in order to "recharge" its gas content, through to the scale of individual gaseous clouds that turn into stars (under one light year).

A lot of "explanations" of star formation are mere theory, without observational support.....but the current generation of infrared and sub-mm and millimeter -wave instruments should have the resolution to make it more of an observational science.

I will see if I can find a couple of more explanations of star formation for you.

cheers, robert