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Abstract Theoretical models and numerical simulations suggest that high mass star (with mass > 8 solar mass) can be formed either via monolithic collapse of a massive core or competitive accretion, but the dominant mechanism is currently unclear. Although recent high resolution observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected physical and kinematic features, such as disks, outflows and filamentary structures surrounding the high mass young stellar objects (HMYSO), direct detection of the infalling gas towards the HMYSO is still the key to distinguish the different scenarios. Chemically fresh gas inflows have been detected towards low-mass stars being formed, which are consistent with the accretion-disk-outflow process. In this work we report the detection of a chemically fresh inflow which is feeding HMYSO growth in the nearby high mass star-forming region G352.63-1.07. High quality images of the dust and molecular lines from both ALMA and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) have consistently revealed a gravitationally-controlled gas inflow towards a rotating structure (disk or torus) around the HMYSO. The HMYSO is also observed to have an outflow, but it can be clearly separated from the inflow. These kinematic features provide observational evidence to support the conjecture that high-mass stars can be formed in a similar process to that observed in the low-mass counterparts. The chemically fresh infalling streamers could also be related with the disk configuration, fragmentation and accretion bursts that occur in both simulations and observations.

We present a method to determine the star formation history (SFH) of a mixed stellar population, based on an iterative maximum Likelihood comparison of stellar photometry to model color-magnitude diagrams. We demonstrate the algorithm on a subregion of the Large Magellanic Cloud, observed as part of our ongoing Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey. We will eventually perform this analysis on hundreds of regions in both Clouds, resulting in a homogeneous SFH map of these galaxies.

Near-infrared imaging of the Orion Molecular Cloud has revealed that an explosive event occurred in its core within the past 1000 years, ejecting at least a score of dense knots of gas at several 100 km/s.

HST images of the E galaxies NGC 1399 and NGC 4552 and of the Sa NGC 2681 were obtained with FOC f/96 through the filters F175W, F220W, F275W and F342W. The most important discovery of these observations is the clear detection of central spikes in NGC 2681 and NGC 4552, that are prominent in each of the FOC images. No spike is detected in NGC 1399. The spikes appear unresolved by the O″.07 core of the Pre-COSTAK PSF, corresponding to a physical size <∼2–3 pc. We estimate V = 16.4 for the spike in NGC 2681 and V = 18.4 for that in NGC 4552, or ∼ 107 L⊙ in both cases. The spikes contribute less than a few percent of the UV flux sampled by IUE. We can offer three options for their nature: a central burst of star formation; effects of stellar interaction in a very dense environment; and a low level AGN. The first two options are currently entertained for the origin of the very dense star cluster at the center of our own Galaxy, whose size and luminosity are comparable to the corresponding limits for the two UV spikes (Genzel et al. 1994). A much fainter central spike (∼ 105 L⊙) is also seen at the center of NGC 205, and appears to be consistent with a modest burst of star formation (Bertola et al. 1995).

In recent years, several associations of young, late-type stars have been identified near the Sun. These groups of young stars, with ages between 5 and 30 Myr, can be merged with available T Tau and O-B star samples in order to study the history of recent star formation and kinematic evolution in the nearest solar neighbourhood.