Episode 12: The Making of Stars and Planets | Spring 2008 - Lunch Hour Lectures

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Episode 12 - Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2008

The Making of Stars and Planets

Stars are formed from the interstellar medium and yet throughout their lifetime they feed material back into it. The interaction and exchange between the stars and the interstellar medium is therefore vital to a proper understanding of the mechanisms that drive our universe. Most stars are mainly hydrogen and are very hot. The interstellar medium on the other hand is usually cold, dusty and made up of hundreds of different atomic and molecular species. A complex chemical and physical evolution must take place in the stellar environments. Astrochemistry is the subject that studies this evolution. This lecture aims at giving an overview of this relatively new subject by reviewing recent advances in astrochemistry and its relevance to other fields such as cosmology and astrobiology.