Sandra Liss
Astronomy graduate student
Super Star Clusters
Though mergers between galaxies are less common today, they were prevalent in the early universe where the high number density of galaxies led to frequent and prolonged galaxy interactions. These merging system create dense environments, which drive the collapse of interstellar material into protostars. Particularly strong galaxy interactions enable the formation of super star clusters -- massive star-forming regions with large populations of high mass stars. These objects are the proposed progenitors are globular clusters, which are some of the oldest objects in the universe.
The Antennae galaxies are the nearest example of a major galaxy merger, and it is possible to resolve individual super star clusters in this system. I use data from the Jansky Very Large Array and archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope to identify the youngest super star clusters in the Antennae. These 'natal' super star clusters are obscured at all but the longest wavelengths because they are heavily enshrouded in dust.
Three color optical HST image of the Antennae Galaxies with JVLA data overlayed in cyan. The natal super star clusters lie in regions where the radio emission is bright, but there is no optical emission.