SO colloquium: The PARSEC view of star formation and the interstellar medium in galaxies

The PARSEC project is a multiwavelength investigation of the centers of galaxies at parsec scales. In this presentation, I will provide a direct visualization of the star formation process in the centers of galaxies, resolved into their building blocks—the star clusters. I will address the triggering process of star formation in a range of galaxies with different morphologies and levels of nuclear activity. This triggering process will be connected to a permeating interstellar medium, resolved into a fine network of molecular and dust filaments that enshroud and feed the star clusters. The analysis of hundreds of clusters and their molecular cloud precursors allows us to determine the timescale of major star formation episodes, from the molecular core to the pre-cluster phase to the cluster phase. With this information, an accurate estimate of the star formation rate at both cluster and galaxy scales will be presented. The properties of star clusters at parsec scales will be compared with equivalent measurements in our Milky Way and with recent results on resolved star clusters at high redshift. I will show how this parsec-scale view may challenge our understanding of star formation when averaged at galaxy scales.