Specific Star Forming Regions -- Oral Presentation

Spitzer View of Star Formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

You-Hua Chu, University of Illinois

The advent of Spitzer Space Observatory provides for the first time an opportunity to detect and resolve proto stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) at 50 kpc. As proto stars have not significantly disrupted their interstellar environments, it is possible to associate the final product of star formation with the initial interstellar conditions and assess the roles played by global gravitational instability and local dynamical triggering. We were awarded Spitzer IRAC and MIPS observations of 7 star forming complexes in the LMC (N11, N44, N51, N63, N70, N144, and N180). Massive proto stars are detected in every region and in the least expected locations. When compared with optical images taken with Hubble or ground-based telescopes and X-ray images taken with Chandra or XMM-Newton, triggered star formation can be unambiguously identified. Beautiful images and exciting results on star formation in the LMC will be presented.