Universe and cosmology Galaxies and the Milky Way
Galaxies. Geometry of star formation
Emilio J. Alfaro Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia
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About the lecture
Stars are born in dense, cold gas clouds found mainly in the discs of spiral galaxies. The distribution of young stars within galactic discs gives us information about the intrinsic properties of their host galaxies, and has led us to develop different mathematical tools to analyse it. This has given rise to a discipline we could call the geometry of star formation, which links star-formation processes with the spatial structure of the galaxy at different scales. The appearance of a galaxy is not only a beautiful and fascinating sight, but a snapshot of what its stellar population is like and how it is born.
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