08:30 III.R1 Don Figer Young massive clusters


Over the past ten years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of massive young stellar clusters in the Galaxy. Initially, there were no known examples having masses >10^4, yet now we know that there are at least a half dozen such clusters in the Galaxy. In all but one case, the masses of these clusters have been determined through infrared observations. Presumably, we are just scratching the surface, and we might look forward to having statistically significant samples of coeval massive stars at all important stages of stellar evolution. I review the efforts that have led to this dramatic turn of events and the growing sample of young massive clusters in the Galaxy.