Studying the star formation process with adaptive optics

Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) are the builders of worlds. During its infancy, a star transforms ordinary interstellar dust particles into astronomical gold: planets to say the process is complex, and largely unknown to data. Yet, violent and spectacular events of mass ejection are witnessed, disks in keplerian rotation are detected, multiple stars dancing around each other are found. These are as many traces of the stellar and planet formation process. The high angular resolution provided by adaptive optics, and the related gain in sensitivity, have allowed major breakthrough discoveries to be made in each of these specific fields and our understanding of the various physical processes involved in the formation of a star has leaped forward tremendously over the last few years. In the following, meant as a report of the progress made recently in star formation due to adaptive optics, we will describe new results obtained at optical and near- infrared wavelengths, in imaging and spectroscopic modes. Our images of accretion disks and ionized stellar jets permit direct measurements of many physical parameters and shed light into the physics of the accretion and ejection processes. Although the accretion/ejection process so fundamental to star formation is usually studied around single objects, most of young stars form as part of multiple systems. We also present our findings on how the fraction of stars in binary systems evolves with age. The implications of these results on the conditions under which these stars must have formed are discussed.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.