Bulletin No. 1, 2015

40   Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2015 Research Physicist Unravels Mystery of Massive Star Formation Prof. Hua-bai Li of the Department of Physics and his collaborators have revealed a surprising picture showing that magnetic fields is a crucial force in regulating the conversion of clouds to stars. The ground-breaking discovery was based on data collected from a massive star forming site for almost a decade. At a distance of about 5,500 light years from us in the constellation Scorpius, NGC 6334 (also known as the Cat’s Paw Nebula) is the nearest massive star forming site. Prof. Hua-bai Li and his team focus ed on mapp ing B -f i e l d morphologies in the NGC 6334 region. They found that the B-field direction of NGC 6334 is quite well preserved from large to small scales, implying that self-gravity and cloud turbulence are not able to significantly alter the field direction. As a result, the cloud and fragmentations at various levels are all flattened along the B-field, and field lines are slightly pinched by the fragmentations at various scales. In other words, the B-field is dynamically important in determining the processes of cloud formation, cloud fragmentation and cloud core formation. (Photo credit: Sarah Willis, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)