Star Formation at High Resolution, Zooming into the Carina Nebula, the Nearest Laboratory of Massive Star Feedback

Abstract

Most stars form in rich clusters and therefore in close proximity to massive stars, that strongly affect their environment by ionizing radiation, winds, and supernova explosions. Due to the relatively large distances of massive star forming regions, detailed studies of these feedback effects require very high sensitivity a nd angular resolution. The latest generations of large telescopes have now made studies of the full (i.e. high- and low-mass) stellar populations of distant (D > 2 kpc) star forming regions feasible, and can provide high enough angular resolution to reveal the small-scale structure of their clouds. In this paper, I present first results of a recent deep multi-wa velength study of the Great Nebula in Carina. The Carina Nebula contains some of the most massive and luminous stars in our Galaxy and is an ideal site to study in detail the physics of violent massive star formation and the resulting feedback effects, i.e. cloud dispersal and triggering of star formation. With a distance of 2.3 kpc, it constitutes our best bridge betwee n nearby regions like Orion and the much more massive, but also more distant extragalactic starburst systems like 30 D oradus. Our new X-ray and infrared data reveal, for the first time, the low-mass stellar population in the Carina Nebula, and allo w us to study the ages, mass function, and disk properties of the young stars. With sub-mm observations we also probed the morphology of the cold dusty molecular clouds throughout the complex and obtained new insight into the interaction between massive stars and clouds. These observational data will be compared to detailed numerical radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of the effects of stellar feedback on molecular cloud dynamics and turbulence. This will show how ionizing radiation and stellar winds disperse the clouds and trigger the formation of a new generation of stars.