Interstellar Medium and Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies

Séminaire IPAG de Andreas Schruba (IRAM), jeudi 12 décembre 2013 à 11h00, IPAG seminar room

Remarkable progress has been achieved in recent years in quantifying the molecular, atomic and dusty properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) and their relation to star formation in nearby galaxies. This is mainly thanks to a number of dedicated multi-wavelength surveys. For the ISM these include the VLA THINGS and IRAM 30m HERACLES surveys which provide a rigorous view on the atomic and molecular ISM on kiloparsec scales across 50 nearby spiral and dwarf galaxies. I will highlight and describe some of the recent results that emerged from these efforts and review our current understanding of the ISM properties on galactic scales, with a focus on the molecular gas phase, and its relation to star formation in nearby galaxies. I will conclude highlighting ongoing work which extends the studies of the star formation process from galactic to molecular cloud scales, the true entities where stars form.