MOLECULAR CLOUDS AND STAR-FORMING REGIONS

The formation and early evolution of stars has been a topic of intense interest among astronomers over the last two decades. There have been many exciting discoveries during this time which have greatly increased our understanding of this complex topic. However, a complete picture of star formation, starting from the parent molecular clouds and proceeding through various temperature and density regimes to emergence on the main sequence, has not yet been formulated. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is extending the research on molecular clouds and star forming regions into the sub-millimetre wavelength band where higher gas densities and temperatures will be observed at higher spatial resolution.