Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ECOGAL (Understanding our Galactic ecosystem: From the disk of the Milky Way to the formation sites of stars and planets)
Período documentado: 2022-03-01 hasta 2023-08-31
We witness a paradigm shift in galactic astronomy and astrophysics. Approaches that treat the constituents of the Galaxy in equilibrium and look at the various scales in isolation reach clear limits. A comprehensive understanding of our Milky Way requires us to consider the Galaxy as one single complex ecosystem, where dramatically different environments coexist and where varying conditions are found for star and planet formation, and ultimately for life.
Exploring and understanding the Galactic ecosystem as well as the physical processes that govern its evolution define the research activities of ECOGAL. Our primary goal is to build a unifying predictive model of star and planet formation in the Milky Way.
Based on a unique combination of theoretical modeling and multi-wavelengths observations, we will
– trace the properties of planet-forming disks back to their environment in different parts of the Galaxy,
– determine the physical processes that regulate the birth to stars and determine their key parameters,
– deliver a well calibrated galaxy template which can be used to study systems in the distant Universe.
To reach these goals, ECOGAL unites four key research groups in Europe at the forefront in observational astronomy, numerical astrophysics, instrument development, and astroinformatics, whose synergy enables transformative progress in our understanding of the Galaxy.
In the first funding period, we started to collaborate on the various joint tasks as outlined in Section B2 of the proposal. Despite delays due to the global pandemic, the project is well on track as demonstrated by the large number of joint publications that range from the presentation of analytic models to the dissemination of data from large observational survey projects, or from the development of numerical or data-analysis methods to high-resolution multi-wavelength measurements.