| Themes > Science > Astronomy > The Stars > Star Formation |
A star forms through the gravitational collapse of a vast cloud of interstellar hydrogen. According to theory, and confirmed by previous Hubble pictures, a dusty disk forms around the newborn star. As material falls onto the star, some of it can be heated and ejected along the star's spin axis as opposing jets. These jets of hot gas blaze for a relatively short period of the star's life, less than 100,000 years. However, that brief activity can predestine the star's evolution, since the final mass of a star determines its longevity, temperature, and ultimate fate. The jet might carry away a significant fraction of the material falling in toward the star, and, like a hose's water stream plowing into sand, sweeps out a cavity around the star that prevents additional gas from falling onto the circumstellar disk. |
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