11261(  1) - 03/30/07 11:14  - [  1]

                  HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVING PROGRAM 11261

Version: 1    Check-in Time: 30-Mar-2007 15:14:11       STScI Edit Number: 0

Title
Dynamically-Driven Star Formation in M51
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Type             Cycle     Parallel Pointing Tolerance
AR               16        <none>
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Investigators
                                                                                     Contact?
    PI: Dr. Jin Koda                      California Institute of Technology
   CoI: Dr. Nicholas Scoville             California Institute of Technology            N

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Abstract

We propose to investigate gas dynamical environments around star forming regions in
the ground-design spiral galaxy M51. The archival HST/ACS Halpha image will reveal
the location and properties (e.g. size, luminosity) of HII regions. The CARMA key
project observes molecular gas over the entire M51 disk, overlaying the gas density
and velocity structures on the HII image. CARMA has sufficient spatial and velocity
resolutions for revealing dynamical environments (e.g. shocks, shears) around
individual star forming regions. We will correlate the HII region properties with
their dynamical environments. The comparison of CARMA and HST image will reveal the
previously unseen connection between galactic gas dynamics and the trigger of star
formation.
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