Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

“The Cosmic History of Star Formation”

Curator and Curator-in-Charge
Department of Astrophysics
Chair, Division of Physical Sciences
American Museum of Natural History

Adjunct Professor
Department of Astronomy
Columbia University

Once, there were no stars, just hydrogen and helium gas, and dark matter.  Once stars did begin to form, there was a huge increase in the star formation rate, which has now fallen back, leaving the modern universe with star formation rates only a tenth of those at the peak.  In this talk I tell this story, and also a little of the story of how we are coming to understand this cosmic history.