Future Plans + Article

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have had trouble with trying to advance my project further, so from now on I will be picking a more specific topic to go more in depth and read articles about. Right now, the two topics that interest me most is the dark matter content in colliding galaxies and spectroscopy. Over the next few weeks, I will be learning about the significance of my project in relation to dark matter or spectroscopy.

I did read an interesting article published in 2014 on the formation of star clusters. Essentially the article was about how new evidence had been found that disproved the old theory of star clusters, which stated that older stars were towards the center. The two clusters in question are NGC 2024 (part of the Flame Nebula) and the Orion Nebula Cluster, and the oldest stars were discovered at the outer edges.

Their first step was to use the Chandra data on brightness of the stars to find the masses before using Spitzer telescope data and ground-based telescopes to figure out the infrared (IR) brightness. Finally, they combined it with theoretical models to estimate the age.

The three explanations the researchers came up with are the following:

1. Dust is denser at the center, so star formation rates are higher.

2. Old stars drift out over time.

3. Young stars form in the center because of large filaments of gas.

My Questions -

• Where do the theoretical models come from or how are they generated?

• If older stars drift out over time and stars with more mass also drift out, is there a relationship between the age and mass of the star?

• I don't quite understand the concept of the 3rd explanation and how it is different from the 1st explanation.