SFB2023_overview

Massive stars, due to their short lifetime and high energy output, drive the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Hence, they substantially contribute to shaping the present-day Universe. The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) will unravel the “habitats of massive stars across cosmic time”. “Habitats” are the gaseous environments within which massive stars are born and which they interact with via their feedback. Over the anticipated 12-year lifetime of this new CRC initiative, we aim to connect the physical processes that govern the habitats of massive stars across the full range of environments hosting massive stars – from sub-parsec to mega-parsec scales and from the Milky Way to the high-redshift Universe, where massive stars leave their cosmological fingerprint by driving cosmic reionisation.

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Key Profile Area “Dynamics of the Universe”

The Dynamics of the Universe is a Key Profile Area (KPA) of the University of Cologne since 2025. Please check back soon for more information and our new website

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Science Highlight

  • B2: First-Detected Young Carbon-Filled Bubble in RCW79 Hides Its Carbon Emission (Eduard Keilmann, Simon Dannhauer, Nicola Schneider, Robert Simon)

    B2: First-Detected Young Carbon-Filled Bubble in RCW79 Hides Its Carbon Emission (Eduard Keilmann, Simon Dannhauer, Nicola Schneider, Robert Simon)
    • B2: First-Detected Young Carbon-Filled Bubble in RCW79 Hides Its Carbon Emission (Eduard Keilmann, Simon Dannhauer, Nicola Schneider, Robert Simon)

      In our recent A&A Letter, we studied ionized carbon emission (C⁺, [C II]) at 158 μm in S144, a C⁺ bubble on the southeastern edge of the ring-shaped star-forming region RCW79. S144 hosts a compact H II region ionized by a single O7.5–9.5 V/III star. Using SOFIA/upGREAT maps with high angular and spectral resolution, we identified the first bubble that remains mostly filled with C⁺ gas – an indicator of an exceptionally early evolutionary stage. All previously characterized C⁺ bubbles exhibit shell-like rings with central cavities carved by stellar winds, marking more advanced phases.

      We also uncovered an apparent shortfall in C⁺ emission relative to S144’s far-infrared luminosity: the so-called “C⁺-deficit,” long attributed to increased dust heating, cooling via other fine-structure lines, or intense radiation fields. Our analysis shows instead that cooler C⁺ gas in the bubble’s outer layers self-absorbs the emission from its warm interior, creating the illusion of a deficit.

      By correcting for C⁺ self-absorption, we refine our view of how carbon governs gas cooling in star-forming regions and improve the interpretation of [C II] observations across both Galactic and extragalactic environments.

      Paperlink: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453445

1st funding period: 10/2023 – 06/2027

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