The aim of the project is to study a phenomenon called stellar feedback, which is a process regulating the rate of new star formation. On one hand, active stars throw off clouds of dust and gas that are the building blocks of new stars. On the other hand, stars can also give off streams of particles called stellar winds that can blow these clouds away and prevent new stars from forming nearby.
Stellar winds aren’t the only process that contributes to stellar feedback though. There are also other factors like the forces of supernova explosions when a massive star comes to the end of its life, which blows gas around. This process of stellar feedback means only some new stars form, keeping a galaxy in balance (via Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society).
To look at this process on a smaller scale, ASTHROS will create 3D maps of busy star-forming regions of the Milky Way to see how gas moves around and where it is dense or sparse. Then the telescope will also look at distant galaxies to see the effects of feedback on a galaxy as a whole. “It’s difficult to explore feedback all the way from where it originates, at the scale of individual stars, to where it has an effect, on the scale of galaxies,” said the principal investigator for ASTHROS, Jorge Pineda. “With a large mirror we can connect those two.” The ASTHROS project is set to launch in December 2023.
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