The WCA-KPL Astronomy Talk series takes place on the last Wednesday of each month, and is jointly organized by the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics and Kitchener Public Library.
Understanding how stars form is a vital aspect of many areas of astronomy. From one perspective, star formation is a crucial part of understanding how galaxies evolve – from another, star formation can help us determine where planets exist that have the potential to host life. In this month’s KPL astronomy talk, Dr. Ashley Bemis will discuss what we learn about star formation by looking at where stars are being born in nearby galaxies – and within our own Milky Way.
Ashley Bemis is a postdoctoral researcher at the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Waterloo. Her research involves studying star forming regions in nearby galaxies by observing the dense gas from which stars form using data collected from radio telescopes.