Star Formation, Massive Stars, and Super Star Clusters in Nearby Galaxies with the SKA

Abstract

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will enable studies of star formation in nearby galaxies with a level of detail never before possible outside of the Milky Way. Because the earliest stages of stellar evolution are often inaccessible at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, high spatial resolution radio observations are necessary to explore extragalactic star formation. The SKA will have the sensitivity to detect individual ultracompact HII regions out to the distance of nearly 50 Mpc, allowing us to study their spatial distributions, morphologies, and population statistics in a wide range of environments. Radio observations of Wolf-Rayet stars outside of the Milky Way will also be possible for the first time, greatly expanding the range of conditions in which their mass loss rates can be determined from free-free emission. On a vastly larger scale, natal of super star clusters will be accessible to the SKA out to redshifts of nearly z~0.1. The unprecedented sensitivity of radio observations with the SKA will also place tight constraints on the star formation rates as low as 1 M_sun/yr in galaxies out to a redshift of z~1 by directly measuring the thermal radio flux density without assumptions about a galaxy's magnetic field strength, cosmic ray production rate, or extinction.