Turner studies the formation of some of the most massive objects within galaxies, “super star clusters”. How a million stars form simultaneously in a single cluster is one of the mysteries of astronomy. In spite of the fact that the most massive of concentrated star clusters contain thousands of luminous and windy O stars within the space of only a few parsecs, they can form subsequent generations of stars and may survive to very old age, as globular clusters have done. There are no such massive clusters currently forming in the Milky way, but there are in local galaxies such as the dwarf galaxy, NGC 5253. The youngest clusters are typically still "embedded" in their natal dusty gas clouds.
While this allows us to study their pristine natal environments, before the stars have had a chance to d isperse the gas, it also means that they are hidden from optical view. To see them, one observes at infrared and millimeter wavelengths, where the clusters can be indirectly seen through the hot gaseous nebulae excited by the young stars. The nearby molecular clouds from which they formed can be detected in millimeter and submillimeter-wave emission from lines of molecules such as carbon monoxide (CO).