Abstract: Stars and their planetary systems form in cold interstellar gas and dust clouds impermeable to the optical light our eyes can see. By contrast, light at much longer wavelengths is able to penetrate these regions allowing us to directly observe stars that are currently forming. The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is sensitive to ices, warm dust and hot gasses emanating from these objects, whereas the ground-based Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is capable of resolving the cold gas and dust environments of protostars. After detailing the capabilities of each of these observatories and outlining the currently known phases of the star-formation process, I will demonstrate how the synergy of combined JWST and ALMA observations has advanced the field, with a specific example of a young, multiple system whose twin jets and aligned twin disks could only be revealed by the combined data from both instruments
Brief Biography: Mary was Principal Investigator at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View while serving as Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at San Francisco State. She has held positions as Senior Principal Investigator at Space Science Institute in Boulder and as a faculty member in the physics departments of USC, Harvey Mudd College, and U.C. Riverside, preceded by postdoctoral appointments at Harvard and Berkeley. Her Physics Ph.D. is from Caltech and her S.B. in physics is from MIT.
Dr. Barsony's research has focussed on all aspects of star-formation, approached through multi-wavelength studies of the closest star-forming regions to Earth. Most recently, Dr. Barsony's discovery of twin jets and aligned twin disks in a young multiple system in the nearby Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region, made possible using combined JWST and ALMA data was featured in a joint press release by JPL and NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)
in June of 2024
