PhD Defense Mihkel Kama
What is your main research question?
What do the spectra of forming stars tell us about their chemical and physical structure, and about the change of these properties during starbirth?
What is the most important conclusion to be drawn from your research?
When observing emission from chemical species in young stars, it is very important to sample a wide range of atoms and molecules, and to observe multiple spectral lines from each. Such data can reveal the true chemical and physical complexity of star-forming gas clouds in space, even if that complex structure is too small to be spatially visible.
What is the social significance / what are the practical consequences?
A better understanding of how stars and planets form in space is necessary to comprehend the origins of our own Solar System, including the Earth and ourselves. In my thesis, I contributed a part to the modern study of these processes.
Which methodology did you use for your research?
Most of my work is based on spectra of molecular line emission from star-forming gas clouds in space. These spectra were observed with the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope, using the microwave spectrometer HIFI. Numbers were derived from the data by analytical and numerical models, including some using Monte Carlo methods for radiative transfer and excitation calculations.
Location: Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, Amsterdam