Related topics: star formation

Understanding conditions for star formation

Researchers have demonstrated how a gas escapes ice at an extremely cold temperature, providing insight into star formation in interstellar clouds. The mechanism by which hydrogen sulphide is released as gas in interstellar ...

Looking at the universe through very different 'eyes'

We are bathed in starlight. During the day we see the Sun, light reflected off the surface of the Earth and blue sunlight scattered by the air. At night we see the stars, as well as sunlight reflected off the Moon and the ...

The initial mass function

The gas and dust in giant molecular clouds gradually come together under the influence of gravity to form stars. Precisely how this occurs, however, is incompletely understood. The mass of a star, for example, is by far the ...

How Herschel unlocked the secrets of star formation

Surveying the sky for almost four years to observe the glow of cold cosmic dust embedded in interstellar clouds of gas, the Herschel Space Observatory has provided astronomers with an unprecedented glimpse into the stellar ...

Magnetic fields in massive star formation cores

Studies of molecular clouds have revealed that star formation usually occurs in a two-step process. First, supersonic flows compress the clouds into dense filaments light-years long, after which gravity collapses the densest ...

Chandra peers into a nurturing cloud

In the context of space, the term 'cloud' can mean something rather different from the fluffy white collections of water in the sky or a way to store data or process information. Giant molecular clouds are vast cosmic objects, ...

Star-forming filaments

Interstellar molecular clouds are often seen to be elongated and "filamentary" in shape, and come in a wide range of sizes. In molecular clouds, where stars form, the filamentary structure is thought to play an important ...

Protostar displays a strange geometry

Using observations of molecules in the protostar L1527 taken by the ALMA observatory in northern Chile, a group of researchers have uncovered new clues to understanding how dust in a collapsing molecular cloud can shed angular ...

Hidden secrets of Orion's clouds

This spectacular new image is one of the largest near-infrared high-resolution mosaics of the Orion A molecular cloud, the nearest known massive star factory, lying about 1350 light-years from Earth. It was taken using the ...

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