Mike Grudić

Movies

Star Cluster Formation with Stellar Feedback

Here we show the assembly process of a star cluster at the heart of a molecular cloud. The clusters that ultimately form assemble out of a hierarchichy of sub-clusters. Meanwhile, stellar feedback (radiation, winds, and supernovae) removes the remaining gas from the system. paper

Formation of an OB assocation in the Milky Way

Here we simulate a 2 million solar mass molecular cloud with radius 100 parsecs. We form a hierarchically-clustered complex resembling the Carina OB1 association, with both bound and unbound clustersm, including a mixture of clusters that are long-lived and ones that undergo infant mortality. Check back for the paper soon!

Isothermal MHD Turbulence

Here's what happens when you have a bunch of gas that always stays at around 10K (like in a GMC), threaded by a magnetic field, and you stir it up until it reaches Mach ~9. Intricate networks of shocks and filaments form, and it is believed that this is a key process in the formation of dense cores that go on to form stars and star clusters.

Star Formation

Here we zoom in on a single star forming in a GMC. After the initial collapse, where gas falls straight onto the protostar, the gas with higher angular momentum arrives and forms a disk. This disk gets more and more gas-rich until its self-gravity starts to become important, and it forms spiral shocks and eventually fragments. This initiates a chaotic cascade of fragmentation events where binary, triple, and quadrupole systems form and dissolve dynamically.