Shedding light on the dark ages of star formation in the Galaxy
Nicolas PERETTO
CEA
Résumé :
Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are pristine reservoirs of cold molecular gas
seen in silhouette against the infrared background of the galactic plane.
These clouds are often claimed to be the progenitors of massive stars
and may well contain the initial conditions for star formation in the
Galaxy. However, most IRDC studies found in the literature focus on
the most extreme IRDCs, and do not provide a global understanding of
the star formation process taking place in these clouds. During this
talk, I will present recent observational studies aiming at statistically
characterizing the nature of IRDCs and better understanding their
role in the context of star formation on galactic scale.
