A specialist discussion meeting organised by:
Dr E. Bayet (University of Oxford) and Dr S. Viti (UCL)
Summary: Understanding how stars are forming in various galaxy types, local and more distant in the Universe, is an essential first step for an accurate reconstruction of how galaxies form and evolve in the Universe. More precisely, it is fundamental to increase our knowledge on the properties of the gas from which all stars are forming. In the second half of 2011, the one billion and a half US dollars Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) interferometer will be ready for revolutionizing our current vision of the star formation process involved in external galaxies. ALMA will have over 50 times the resolution of current submillimeter instruments making it possible to image nearby galaxies to the extent of revealing the individual SF sites within them, and image distant galaxies at a resolution similar to what is currently achievable for nearby sources.
State-of-the-art results on extragalactic star-forming gas will be presented at this meeting, along with planning, discussion and prospect around the preparation of the future ALMA observations.
The programme for this meeting can be found here.