As these stars aged, they cast much of their mass back into interstellar space. This material, enriched in heavier elements, formed later generations of stars and planets like the Sun and the Earth. Applying computational tools to data from the HST and from other observatories, researchers at Kentucky infer the abundance of heavy elements in our own galaxy and in others. From this analysis, they seek to understand the rising concentration of heavy elements over the history of the universe. Related issues concern the origins of stars, and physical nature some of the intriguing phenomena associated with their births and deaths.
Stars form from gravitational collapse of vast clouds of gas and dust in interstellar space.
Yet many details of this process remain obscure. One is the role of interstellar magnetic fields. Observations of radio frequency radiation from interstellar clouds yield estimates of magnetic field strengths in these regions. From these estimates come indications of the role of the magnetic field in the star formation process. Kentucky researchers carry out these observations using radio telescopes in the U.S. and abroad.