Abstract
The theories of star and galaxy formation are intimately related. Unfortunately, there is no accepted theory of star formation, despite the fact that laboratories where stars are currently forming exist within 200 pc of the sun. This may suggest that attempting to understand how galaxies formed would be a futile endeavor. However such a prospect has never deterred theoreticians, and this lecture is devoted to describing some aspects of how star formation processes are relevant to galaxy formation. I commence by discussing the formation of the first stars in the collapsing protogalactic gas cloud. I then examine the characteristic parameters of the old spheroidal components of galaxies, and show how important a role star formation processes must have played in their development and evolution.
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© 1986 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Silk, J. (1986). Towards a Theory of Galaxy Formation. In: Chiosi, C., Renzini, A. (eds) Spectral Evolution of Galaxies. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 122. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4598-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4598-2_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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