About me

I am an observational astronomer exploring one of the fascinating problems in astrophysics — how diffuse matter within clouds in the universe condenses into stars or star clusters. By studying these enigmatic formations, I aim to unravel the complex processes driving the formation of these stellar nurseries and ultimately contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics at play in our universe.

To seek answers to these questions, I utilize various observational techniques and data sets at multiwavelengths — including photometric, dust continuum, molecular line, spectroscopic, and dust polarization data — spanning infrared to millimetre wavelengths from different ground- and space-based telescopes.

Star formation scaling relations at the clump scale

Stars, including our Sun, are born in cold, dense molecular clouds (MCs)—vast reservoirs of gas and dust extending over ~10-50 pc. Within these clouds, gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, and stellar feedback shape a hierarchy of structures: parsec-scale clumps, ~0.1 pc-wide filaments, and compact (<0.1 pc) cores. Cores form individual stars, clumps host stellar clusters, and filaments channel material from larger cloud scales toward clumps and cores. In this sense, molecular clouds can be viewed as cosmic star-forming machines, converting gas into stars. But how fast and how efficiently does this conversion occur? These questions are quantified by the star formation rate (SFR) and star formation efficiency (SFE), and by how they depend on the available gas reservoir. At extragalactic scales, this connection is encapsulated by the Kennicutt–Schmidt relation, ΣSFR ∝ Σgas^1.4, where ΣSFR and Σgas are the SFR and gas mass surface densities. At molecular-cloud scales, however, the observed scaling relations vary with spatial scale, resolution, dataset, and methodology. Because the actual conversion of gas into stars occurs locally within clumps and cores, tracing these relations from cloud → clump → core scales is crucial for identifying the physical processes that regulate star formation. To address this, we conducted a statistical study of 17 nearby cluster-forming clumps, investigating star formation scaling relations at the clump scale. We found that there is no universal star-forming scaling relation that can explain the star formation process at all spatial scales, i.e., from extragalactic to cores. For results, see Rawat et al. 2025.