What happens when a giant molecular cloud collapses?
What happens when a giant molecular cloud collapses?
A cloud may start with any size or shape, and different clumps of gas within the cloud may be moving in random directions at random speeds. When the cloud collapses, these different clumps collide and merge, resulting in a flattened rotating disk.
What is the mass at which a molecular cloud will collapse?
So deep inside molecular clouds (the molecular clouds themselves may be 106 – 107 Msun), the cores are collapsing to form stars….Gravitational Collapse.
| Diffuse HI Cloud | Molecular Cloud Core | |
|---|---|---|
| Mass | 1-100 Msun | 10-1000 Msun |
What is causing this molecular cloud to collapse?
A shock wave will cause the molecular cloud to collapse. The shock wave could either be from a violent event, like a supernova, or the stellar winds from young stars compressing the gas around them. into thermal energy as the gas and dust falls toward the protostar.
Why did the nebula collapse?
The dust and gases in a nebula are very spread out, but gravity can slowly begin to pull together clumps of dust and gas. Eventually, the clump of dust and gas gets so big that it collapses from its own gravity.
Which of the following must be occurring in order for a molecular cloud to collapse and form stars?
The strength of gravity within a molecular cloud depends on… Which of the following must be occurring in order for a molecular cloud to collapse and form stars? The buildup of thermal energy in a collapsing gas cloud leads to thermal pressure that can halt the gravitational collapse.
How are giant molecular clouds detected?
It has been shown that for every CO molecule there are about 10,000 hydrogen molecules meaning that we can trace molecular hydrogen through the emission from the CO molecule. This is the primary method use to locate molecular clouds.
Which is known as the biggest stars in the universe?
The largest known star in the universe is UY Scuti, a hypergiant with a radius around 1,700 times larger than the sun.
Who discovered interstellar clouds?
But the two authors, astrophysicist Konstantinos Tassis of the University of Crete and Aris Tritsis, now a postdoctoral fellow at Australian National University, say their discovery will lead to a better understanding of the evolution of interstellar clouds in general.
What happens when a protostar collapses?
As the cloud collapses, is begins to spin and by the time a protostar is formed, the cloud flattens and there is a protostellar disk spinning around the protostar. These disks probably slow the rotation of the protostar, and sometimes coalesce into planetary systems.
How long does protostar stage last?
between 100,000 and 10 million years
During this time, and up until hydrogen burning begins and it joins the main sequence, the object is known as a protostar. This stage of stellar evolution may last for between 100,000 and 10 million years depending on the size of the star being formed.
Why do molecular clouds collapse?
Molecular clouds are susceptible to gravitationally collapse, because gas pressure alone cannot counteract the gravitational force a cloud exerts on itself.
What is the evolution of a giant molecular cloud?
Evolution of a giant molecular cloud over 700,000 years, from a simulation run on the Pleiades supercomputer using the ORION2 code developed at the University of California, Berkeley.
Are there giant molecular clouds in the Milky Way galaxy?
Thousands of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are apparently known to exist in the spiral arms of our galaxy. “In some sense the evolution of a star is cyclic. It is born out of gas and dust that exists between the stars, known as the interstellar medium (ISM).” 2 (emphasis in original)
Why do stars in a molecular cloud slow the rate of creation?
The new stars heat the molecular cloud sufficiently to increase the gas pressure within the cloud. This not only can stop the collapse of a molecular cloud, it can cause the molecular cloud to expand. The creation of stars in a cloud therefore provide feedback that slows the rate of star creation.
