Monday 15 March at 3pm

Richard Crutcher - Univ. of Illinois

"Magnetic Fields in Molecular Clouds - Observations Confront Theory"

ABSTRACT: " Understanding star formation is one of the outstanding challenges of modern astrophysics. Theoretical studies suggest that magnetic fields may play an important or even crucial role in the formation and evolution of interstellar clouds and in the formation of stars. This talk will summarize all available measurements of magnetic field strengths and morphologies in molecular clouds together with other relevant physical parameters and derive the input parameters needed for magnetic star formation theory and compare theoretical predictions with observations, in order to assess the importance of magnetic fields in the star formation process."