Invited Presentation
Exposing Star Formation in our Galaxy's Center: A Window into the Distant Universe
Presenter: Cara Battersby (CfA)
Cosmic star formation peaked around a redshift of 2, in conditions vastly different from those we observe in our solar neighborhood. Yet our understanding of this fundamental physical process, the conversion from gas into stars, is rooted in detailed observations of our solar neighborhood. The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, known as the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), is our closest laboratory for understanding star formation in the extreme environments (hot, dense, turbulent gas) that once dominated the universe. I present preliminary results from the first survey to expose the sites of star formation across the CMZ using the SMA, CMZoom. We identify the location of dense cores in the CMZ and search for embedded signatures of star formation. These measurements allow us to address fundamental questions regarding the nature of star formation in extreme environments.
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