Origin of Stars and Planets: The View from 2021

Abstract.

What (or who) made the Earth, and how? What made the Sun, and are there others? Thus mankind has wondered for eons. Not surprisingly, the answers have evolved a good deal over the decades, centuries, and millenia. So, perhaps more importantly, have the meanings of the questions. Here is an attempt to explore, “as far as thought can reach”, both back into the past and forward into the future, the territory defined by such questions, illuminated by light (and infrared) from the present workshop. If you decide to come along on the quest, it is probably worth carrying in your baggage the related, if strange-sounding, question, is star formation important?