PI Elena Sabbi
Project duration: 1 year with potential for a thesis
The young massive cluster Westerlund 2 hosts a rich population of variable pre-main sequence stars.
Identifying and characterizing the properties of these sources will help understand how stars for different mass form, and grow, and how local condition may affect their evolution.
We have been surveing Westerlund 2, one of the most massive young cluster in the Milky Way, with Hubble for the past 3 years, and we identified a rich population of variable
stars.
So far we have analyzed half of the data. The student will have the opportunity to analyze HST data, and identify and characterize the properties of the pre-main sequence stars and of the binary population.
Result will be presented in a thesis and in a paper led by the student. We will plan followup observations with JWST to characterize the properties of the circumstellar and protoplanetary
disks associated with systems.
