#star formation

[todays-xkcd]

It's ok, I still have some nice, cool gas clouds that aren't collapsing. As long as nothing ionizes them, I can continue to enjoy their ... HEY! NO!!!

Star Formation [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[A glowing dot is in a field of clouds, speaking to itself.] Dot: I think I did a good job with this universe. Dot: Pressure waves dance through gas clouds. Dot: They clump together and then pressure pushes them apart.

[The dot observes some more densely gathering of clouds.] Dot: Oh weird, that big clump of clouds is staying together. Dot: Their gravity is overcoming the pressure and more gas is falling in.

[More of the increasingly fragmentary clouds start to fall into a nascent star.] Dot: It's not stopping! Dot: The heat is rising but the collapse is only accelerating! Dot: I messed up bad. I messed up bad.

[There is now a shining star in place of the dense field of clouds, with a few small clouds only at a distance.] Dot: NOOOOOOOO!!! Dot: My beautiful clouds! Dot: Ruined! It's all ruined!

[thefirststarr]

Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear centres ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years (for the most massive stars), the material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin again.

This expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still-hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. A series of light echoes from the massive star's cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb's detailed images of the surrounding interstellar medium.

Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)

[livingforstars]

M8: The Lagoon Nebula - July 7th, 1998.

"The bright Lagoon Nebula is home to a diverse array of astronomical objects. Particularly interesting sources include a bright open cluster of stars and several energetic star-forming regions. The general red glow is caused by luminous hydrogen gas, while the dark filaments are caused by absorption by dense lanes of dust. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, lies about 5000 light-years away. It can be located with binoculars in the constellation of Sagittarius, spanning a region over three times the diameter of a full Moon."

[spacetelescopescience]

Thick clouds of cold hydrogen gas dominate this view of N159 from the Hubble Space Telescope, forming a complex network of ridges, cavities, and glowing filaments. Embedded within these dense clouds, newly formed stars shine, their intense light causing the surrounding hydrogen to glow in deep red tones.

The brightest regions mark the presence of hot, massive young stars whose powerful stellar winds and energetic light reshape their environment. These forces carve out bubble-like structures and hollowed cavities in the gas, and are clear signatures of stellar feedback in action. Dark clouds in the foreground are lit from behind by new stars.

N159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way. This image shows just a portion of this expansive star-forming complex, as the entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across.

Credit: ESA, NASA, R. Indebetouw.

[colorpicked-pride-flags-jwst]

Aroace flag colorpicked from NGC 1333 Perseus star-forming region

[jameswebb-discoveries]

The James Webb Space Telescope just looked into one of the nearest stellar nurseries in our galaxy and found something remarkable:

An entire timeline of star birth captured in a single image.

🌌 Some of the objects in the image aren't stars yet.

They're dense pockets of gas and dust slowly collapsing under gravity.

🌟 Others are newborn protostars, still hidden inside their dusty cocoons.

🚀 Some are blasting enormous jets of material into space.

🪐 Others already have protoplanetary disks—the raw ingredients for future solar systems.

⭐ And a few have grown into young stars that have begun clearing away the clouds around them.

All of these stages are happening at the same time inside Orion Molecular Cloud 2, about 1,280 light-years from Earth.

The wild part?

This hidden stellar nursery sits just behind the famous Orion Nebula—the same glowing object that countless people have viewed through backyard telescopes.

So the next time you look at Orion, remember:

Behind that familiar nebula, entire solar systems are being assembled right now.

We're not just looking into space.

We're watching the universe build itself.

🔭 Full story and Webb image.

[interstellarwear]

Ever feel like a small part of something massive? Say hello to the Tarantula Nebula, captured in breathtaking detail by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Located 160,000 light-years away, this isn't just a pretty cloud of gas—it’s a stellar nursery. Inside those shimmering filaments of dust, thousands of young stars are being born, many of which are far larger and hotter than our own Sun.

It’s the largest and brightest star-forming region in the Local Group of galaxies.

JWST’s infrared gaze peers right through the thick cosmic dust that used to hide these "baby" stars from our eyes.

This region has a chemical composition similar to the giant star-forming regions of the "cosmic noon"—the era when the universe was most active in making stars.

Looking at this reminds us that even in the dark, cold vacuum of space, there is a constant, brilliant cycle of creation.

HTTPS://INTERSTELLARWEAR.COM

[zespaceblog]

RCW 38

You've probably never heard of it, yet it's one of the densest clusters of stars within 13,000 light years of Earth, and is located in the constellation of Vela at around 5,500 light years from us.

This beautiful image was taken by VISTA ESA's visible and infrared survey telescope, and a 80 million pixel image to boot.

The VLT gives you a hint at the density, and what's more, this baby didn't exist a few million years back, it's one of the youngest open clusters known.

The cluster holds several O type stars, which won't live beyond 50-100 million years before going supernova.