Star Formation Article
Star Formation Article
Star Formation Article
Stars are born within the clouds of dust and scattered throughout most galaxies. A
familiar example of such as a dust cloud is the Orion Nebula. Turbulence deep within these
clouds gives rise to knots with sufficient mass that the gas and dust can begin to collapse
under its own gravitational attraction. As the cloud collapses, the material at the center
begins to heat up. Known as a protostar, it is this hot core at the heart of the collapsing
cloud that will one day become a star. Three-dimensional computer models of star formation
predict that the spinning clouds of collapsing gas and dust may break up into two or three
blobs; this would explain why the majority the stars in the Milky Way are paired or in groups
of multiple stars.
As the cloud collapses, a dense, hot core forms and begins gathering dust and gas. Not all of
this material ends up as part of a star — the remaining dust can become planets, asteroids,
In some cases, the cloud may not collapse at a steady pace. In January 2004, an amateur
astronomer, James McNeil, discovered a small nebula that appeared unexpectedly near the
nebula Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion. When observers around the world pointed
their instruments at McNeil's Nebula, they found something interesting — its brightness
appears to vary. Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory provided a likely
explanation: the interaction between the young star's magnetic field and the surrounding
A star the size of our Sun requires about 50 million years to mature from the beginning of
the collapse to adulthood. Our Sun will stay in this mature phase (on the main sequence as
Stars are fueled by the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium deep in their interiors. The
outflow of energy from the central regions of the star provides the pressure necessary to
keep the star from collapsing under its own weight, and the energy by which it shines.
As shown in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Main Sequence stars span a wide range of
luminosities and colors, and can be classified according to those characteristics. The
smallest stars, known as red dwarfs, may contain as little as 10% the mass of the Sun and
emit only 0.01% as much energy, glowing feebly at temperatures between 3000-4000K.
Despite their diminutive nature, red dwarfs are by far the most numerous stars in the
On the other hand, the most massive stars, known as hypergiants, may be 100 or more
times more massive than the Sun, and have surface temperatures of more than 30,000 K.
Hypergiants emit hundreds of thousands of times more energy than the Sun, but have
lifetimes of only a few million years. Although extreme stars such as these are believed to
have been common in the early Universe, today they are extremely rare - the entire Milky
In general, the larger a star, the shorter its life, although all but the most massive stars live
for billions of years. When a star has fused all the hydrogen in its core, nuclear reactions
cease. Deprived of the energy production needed to support it, the core begins to collapse
into itself and becomes much hotter. Hydrogen is still available outside the core, so
hydrogen fusion continues in a shell surrounding the core. The increasingly hot core also
pushes the outer layers of the star outward, causing them to expand and cool, transforming
If the star is sufficiently massive, the collapsing core may become hot enough to support
more exotic nuclear reactions that consume helium and produce a variety of heavier
elements up to iron. However, such reactions offer only a temporary reprieve. Gradually, the
star's internal nuclear fires become increasingly unstable - sometimes burning furiously,
other times dying down. These variations cause the star to pulsate and throw off its outer
layers, enshrouding itself in a cocoon of gas and dust. What happens next depends on the
This fate awaits only those stars with a mass up to about 1.4
times the mass of our Sun. Above that mass, electron pressure
cannot support the core against further collapse. Such stars
suffer a different fate as described below.
White Dwarfs May Become Novae
If a white dwarf forms in a binary or multiple star system, it
may experience a more eventful demise as a nova. Nova is
Latin for "new" - novae were once thought to be new stars.
Today, we understand that they are in fact, very old stars -
white dwarfs. If a white dwarf is close enough to a companion
star, its gravity may drag matter - mostly hydrogen - from the
outer layers of that star onto itself, building up its surface
layer. When enough hydrogen has accumulated on the
surface, a burst of nuclear fusion occurs, causing the white
dwarf to brighten substantially and expel the remaining
material. Within a few days, the glow subsides and the cycle
starts again. Sometimes, particularly massive white dwarfs
(those near the 1.4 solar mass limit mentioned above) may
accrete so much mass in the manner that they collapse and
explode completely, becoming what is known as a supernova.
Neutron Stars
If the collapsing stellar core at the center of a supernova
contains between about 1.4 and 3 solar masses, the collapse
continues until electrons and protons combine to form
neutrons, producing a neutron star. Neutron stars are
incredibly dense - similar to the density of an atomic nucleus.
Because it contains so much mass packed into such a small
volume, the gravitation at the surface of a neutron star is
immense. Like the White Dwarf stars above, if a neutron star
forms in a multiple star system it can accrete gas by stripping
it off any nearby companions. The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer
has captured telltale X-Ray emissions of gas swirling just a few
miles from the surface of a neutron star.