Forging giants: massive stars and their disks.

4 May 2026, 13:30 → 6 May 2026, 16:20 Europe/Rome

Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri

Maite Beltrán (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Francesco Fontani (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Daniele Galli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Luca Moscadelli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

This conference is dedicated to Riccardo Cesaroni, whose groundbreaking contributions have profoundly shaped our understanding of the formation and early evolution of massive stars. From his seminal work on masers and hot molecular cores to his leadership in high-resolution studies of protostellar disks, Riccardo has been at the forefront of unveiling the complex physical processes that give birth to the most massive stars in the universe.

 

We gather to celebrate not only his scientific achievements, but also his enduring impact on the community — as a mentor, collaborator, and friend.

Monday 4 May

13:30 → 14:00 Opening of Villa Galileo

14:00 → 14:15 Welcome

14:15 → 15:45 Session 1: The early stages years

14:15 RICCARDO CESARONI AND STAR FORMATION

Speaker: Marcello Felli

14:30 TBD

Speaker: Gianni Comoretto

14:45 Synchrotron Emission from Supernova Remnants

Speaker: Rino Bandiera (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

15:15 TBD

Speaker: Roberto Neri (IRAM Grenoble)

15:45 → 16:15 Coffee break

16:15 → 17:45 Session 2: Early stages of star formation

16:15 Per qualche riga in piu' (For a few lines more)

Speaker: Luca Olmi (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

16:45 Before fragmentation: from uniform clouds to stellar clusters

Speaker: Andrea Giannetti (INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia)

17:15 The earliest phases of massive star formation: pushing Riccardo towards astrochemistry

Speaker: Francesco Fontani (INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

Tuesday 5 May

09:30 → 10:30 Session 2: Early stages of star formation

09:30 The Early Stages of Star Formation

Speaker: Paola Caselli (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

10:00 TBD

Speaker: Sergio Molinari (INAF - IAPS)

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 12:30 Session 3: Star forming regions

11:00 The Riccardo's effect

Speaker: Victor Rivilla (Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA))

11:30 TBD

Speaker: Leonardo Testi (Università di Bologna)

12:00 Riccardo and the monitoring of water masers at Medicina

Speaker: Jan Brand

12:30 → 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 → 14:30 Tour of Villa Galileo

14:30 → 16:00 Session 3: Star forming regions

14:30 The Unique Case of IRAS 18162-2048: A massive protostar driving the largest scale jet in our Galaxy

Speaker: Sarita Vig (IIST, Trivandrum)

15:00 TBD

Speaker: Rubén Fedriani (IAA, Granada)

15:30 TBD

Speaker: Fabrizio Massi (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

16:00 → 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 → 18:00 Session 3: Star forming regions

16:30 G31 ... what else?

Speaker: Josep Miquel Girart (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai, CSIC)

17:00 TBD

Speaker: Daniele Galli (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

17:30 Unveiling Accretion in Massive Protostars through High-Resolution Studies of Jets and Outflows

Speaker: Ciriaco Goddi (Università di Cagliari)

19:30 → 21:30 Social dinner

Wednesday 6 May

09:30 → 10:30 Session 4: Massive disks

09:30 Searching for disks in high-mass star-forming regions

Speaker: Peter Schilke (University of Cologne)

10:00 Chasing the accretion and ejection burst of S255 NIRS 3 with Riccardo

Speaker: Alessio Caratti o Garatti (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte)

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 12:30 Session 4: Massive disks

11:00 The disk and the jet of the massive protostar W75N(B)-VLA3

Speaker: Álvaro Sánchez Monge (Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC))

11:30 The circumstellar environment of W75N(B)-VLA2: SiO toroid, wide-angle outflow, and gas obstruction

Speaker: José María Torrelles (ICE-CSIC/IEEC)

12:00 IRAS 20126+4104 and massive star formation

Speaker: Nanda Kumar (Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Port)

12:30 → 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 → 16:00 Session 4: Massive disks

14:00 Hunting Accretion Disks around Massive Young Stars

Speaker: Qizhou Zhang (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian)

14:30 High-mass accretion disks - from Riccardo's beginnings to today

Speaker: Henrik Beuther (MPI fuer Astronomie)

15:00 Chasing disks with Riccardo

Speaker: Alberto Sanna (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari)

15:30 30 years of high-mass star formation by Cesa & mosca

Speaker: Luca Moscadelli (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

16:00 → 16:20 Conclusion remarks