The Life Cycle of Star-Forming Regions in the Era of Next GenerationTelescopes

One of the fundamental questions in modern astrophysics is how stars form, and whether themechanisms by which they form vary between galaxies and across cosmic time. This question isdifficult to answer because star formation occurs over enormous time spans, so we can observeonly static snapshots that we then attempt to piece together to form a movie of the process overtime.