star formation
Cosmic nursery process
Star formation is the process by which dense regions of gas and dust in space collapse under gravity to create new stars.
It occurs primarily in molecular clouds, where material gradually condenses until nuclear fusion ignites in the core.
The nebula is an active region of star formation.
Astronomers study star formation to understand how planetary systems, including our own, came to exist.
- nebulaeInterstellar gas clouds
- Pillars of CreationNebula's star-forming columns
- dustFine settled particles
- cosmic dustMicroscopic particles pervading space
- dark matterLightless cosmic mass
planetesimal · stellar nursery · hydrogen gas · nuclear fusion · main sequence · Orion Nebula · ionized gas · astrophysics · core · cradle · jets · young stars · gas · massive stars · Orion · gravity · birth · disk