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Westerhout 51 nebula in Aquila - one of the largest star factories in the Milky Way (August 25, 2020). Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—collapse and form stars. [1]
Representative lifetimes of stars as a function of their masses The change in size with time of a Sun-like star Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right Chart of stellar evolution
The disk eventually disappears due to accretion onto the central star, planet formation, ejection by jets, and photoevaporation by ultraviolet radiation from the central star and nearby stars. [18] As a result, the young star becomes a weakly lined T Tauri star , which, over hundreds of millions of years, evolves into an ordinary Sun-like star ...
Unlike its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb can observe the universe in infrared light, which allowed the cosmic observatory to see through the dust obscuring the view of star formation.
The formation of a star begins with gravitational instability within a molecular cloud, caused by regions of higher density—often triggered by compression of clouds by radiation from massive stars, expanding bubbles in the interstellar medium, the collision of different molecular clouds, or the collision of galaxies (as in a starburst galaxy).
Gravitational collapse of a massive star, resulting in a Type II supernova. Gravitational collapse is the contraction of an astronomical object due to the influence of its own gravity, which tends to draw matter inward toward the center of gravity. [1] Gravitational collapse is a fundamental mechanism for structure formation in the universe.
Later in its life, a low-mass star will slowly eject its atmosphere via stellar wind, forming a planetary nebula, while a higher–mass star will eject mass via a sudden catastrophic event called a supernova. The term supernova nucleosynthesis is used to describe the creation of elements during the explosion of a massive star or white dwarf.
Taurus Molecular Cloud. Located about 430 light-years from us, this vast complex of interstellar clouds is where a large amount of stars are being born, and is the closest large region of star formation. Star formation involves the collapse of the densest part of the molecular cloud, fragmenting the collapsed region in smaller clumps.