Magnetic Fields Get Some Respect In Star Formation
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 12:29
in Astronomy & Space
Old notion: Giant clouds of gas and dust to collapse inward due to gravity, growing denser and hotter until igniting nuclear fusion and forming stars. New notion: It's more than just gravity and cosmic magnetic fields play a more important role in star formation than previously thought. A molecular cloud is a cloud of gas that acts as a stellar nursery. When a molecular cloud collapses, only a small fraction of the cloud's material forms stars but scientists aren't sure why. read more