Astrochemistry

Low Mass Star Forming Regions

Low mass star forming regions are areas where stars near our sun's mass are forming in the interstellar medium. These regions are generally very dusty and in most cases are only visible in non-optical wavelengths (infrared, mm, radio). With few exceptions, all complex molecules in the interstellar medium are detected in high mass star forming regions. Some of my recent research has been to try and detect the complex species in low mass star forming regions, in order to see if the chemistry that is observed in high mass star forming regions is also present in their low mass counterparts.

Until recently this kind of research was very difficult. The CARMA array's high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, and large instantaneous u-v coverage makes it a great instrument to conduct these studies.