From Taurus to the Antennae

First Announcement

Scientific rationale

It appears that virtually all stars form in star clusters - from loose associations such as Taurus containing around 100 stars, to massive super star clusters such as those found in the Antennae galaxy with over a million members. Interestingly, the mass function of star clusters suggests that associations and super star clusters contribute equal numbers of stars to the stellar population in any galaxy.

In small, nearby clusters we are able to probe the details of the star formation process by examining the distribution and kinematics of the star forming gas and cores, and of individual objects and multiple systems down to well below the hydrogen-burning limit. However, the number of clusters we can observe in such detail is limited and they tend to be of low mass, and often of low density.

The study of massive (super) star clusters enables us to examine dramatic star forming regions containing hundreds and thousands of massive stars, and to probe the physics of galactic mergers and possibly galaxy formation and assembly. However, most super star clusters are unresolvable into their component stars and we are restricted to studying their integrated light.

The aim of this meeting is to bring together researchers working on nearby low-mass clusters and distant super star clusters. We wish to examine what our understanding of local, low-mass cluster formation can tell us about more extreme modes of massive cluster formation and vice-versa.

The key questions we wish to address are:
* Are low-mass and super star clusters merely two extremes of a continuous cluster formation sequence, or are they fundamentally different in some way?
* Is it possible to scale our understanding of the formation of Taurus- or Orion-like clusters to clusters in the Antennae?
* What are the initial conditions for high- and low-mass cluster formation and in what ways are they the same or different?
* What role does environment play in cluster formation?
* How do star clusters evolve? What are the conditions required for clusters to survive for a significant time?

Location

The conference will be held at the University of Sheffield from Monday 4th to Friday 8th August 2008. Sheffield is the UK's fifth largest city and is most famous for steel and cutlery as well as the home of football, but it is also the UK's greenest city with more trees per head than any other city in Europe. Sheffield is located right next to the Peak District National Park, famous for its desolate northerly moorland, and beautiful southerly green pastures which contain Chatsworth House, one of England's most spectacular stately homes which we plan to visit.

Sheffield is very easy to reach: within one-to-two hours of Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, Doncaster/Sheffield and Leeds/Bradford international airports and with direct fast train connections to London and the south.

SOC

Cathie J. Clarke
Richard de Grijs
Bruce G. Elmegreen
Uta Fritze
John S.Gallagher III
Rosa M. Gonzalez Delgado (co-chair)
Simon Goodwin (co-chair)
Eva K. Grebel
Charles J. Lada
Soren S. Larsen
Linda J. Smith
Livia Origlia
Enrique Perez
Guillermo Tenorio-Tagle