ATLASGAL – The APEX telescope large area survey of the galaxy at 870 $\mathsf{\mu}$m

Context. Thanks to its excellent 5100 m high site in Chajnantor, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) systematically explores the southern sky at submillimeter wavelengths, in both continuum and spectral line emission. Studying continuum emission from interstellar dust is essential to locating the highest density regions in the interstellar medium, and deriving their masses, column densities, density structures, and large-scale morphologies. In particular, the early stages of (massive) star formation remain poorly understood, mainly because only small samples of high-mass proto-stellar or young stellar objects have been studied in detail so far.Aims. Our goal is to produce a large-scale, systematic…

• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• FD
  Fondo de Financiamiento de Centros de Investigación en Áreas Prioritarias