Star forming content of Galactic giant molecular filaments

MiaoMiao Zhang

Thursday December 5th, 09:40

Observations have discovered numerous giant molecular filaments (GMFs) in the Milky Way and suggested them to occupy a special role in the Galaxy-scale star formation pattern. However, the studies so far have not confronted this suggestion with an analysis of star formation within the GMFs; the star formation activities of GMFs remain unknown. In this contribution, we present a systematic study of physical properties and star formation within all currently known GMFs. We identify and classify the young stellar object (YSO) populations within each GMF using multi-wavelength photometry from near- to far-infrared. This allows us to estimate the star formation rates (SFRs) of the GMFs and to establish relationships between the SFRs and the GMF properties.