 Wide Field Studies of Star Forming Regions (SF-WF-MSF) Principal investigator The UKIDSS survey and the upcoming VISTA surveys is/will produce unbiased wide field near-infrared observations that encompasses entire star forming regions. The same can be effectively combined with the Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared observations and the CO molecular line observations from the COMPLETE and millimeter continuum surveys from the SCUBA2 and HARP to conduct wide-field studies of star forming regions. Further, individual H2 line surveys and CO line surveys will reveal the outflows in these molecular clouds. We aim to combine this multi wavelength observations to investigate the structure, evolution and dynamics of young stellar population in molecular clouds and embedded clusters and study the initial mass function, feedback mechanisms from outflows and winds from massive stars. The results can be used to test theoretical scenarios of star formation. The same datasets will also be used to address a second objective to investigate the formation of massive stars within these molecular clouds. The mechanism of the formation of massive stars and their early influence on the evolution of the star formation process within the molecular clouds, influencing the variables such as star formation efficiency in the context of quiescent and triggered star formation will be examined. The consortium members involved in the EU and third country (India) have individually and to some extent in collaboration pursued several aspects of the above research. The magnitude of available and to-be available data is enormous and efficient exploitation of these data for science investigation require multiple groups working on various aspects of the science. Through this proposal we aim to combine the expertise and efforts of three groups to obtain maximum output from the wide-field surveys of star forming regions. Funding institution Start: 1 February 2009
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