Where Do Stars Come From?

ASTR 297

1
Review of Stellar
Properties
• Stable main-sequence stars like
the Sun maintain equilibrium by
producing energy through the
nuclear fusion of hydrogen into
helium in their cores. The ability
to generate energy by fusion
defines a star.

2
Review of Stellar
Properties
• Each second in the Sun
approximately 600 million tons of
hydrogen undergo fusion into
helium, with 4 million tons of matter
being converted into energy. The
rate of hydrogen use means that
eventually the Sun (and all other
stars) will run out of central fuel.

3
Review of Stellar
Properties
• Stars come with many different masses,
ranging from 1/12 MSun to 100 MSun. There
are far more low-mass than high-mass
stars.
• The most massive main-sequence stars
(spectral type O) are also the most
luminous and have the highest surface
temperature. The lowest-mass stars on
the main sequence (spectral type M and L)
are the least luminous and coolest
4
Review of Stellar
Properties
• A galaxy of stars such as the Milky
Way contains enormous amounts
of gas and dust – enough to make
billions of stars like the Sun.

5
Giant Molecular Clouds
• The largest clouds of gas and dust in
the interstellar medium are giant
molecular clouds.
– They contain enough gas to form between
100 and 1,000,000 solar mass stars.
– Typically diameters are 50-200 LY.
– Their interiors have a temperature of 10 K.
– Most of the atoms in the gas are in
molecules.

6
Giant Molecular Clouds
– Giant molecular clouds typically
contain clumps or dense cores of
material with low temperatures and
very high densities (104 to 105
atoms/cm3).

7
Orion Molecular Cloud
• The closest and best studied giant
molecular cloud is the Orion
molecular cloud.
– Distance 1500 LY.
– Diameter 100 LY.
– Mass 430,000 MSun.
– It includes the Orion Nebula and the
Horsehead Nebula.
8
Orion Molecular Cloud

9
Orion
Molecular
Cloud

10
Visible Light

11
Visible Light

12
Infrared Light (0.1 mm)

13
Radio (CO at 2.6 mm)

14
Orion Molecular Cloud
• The luminous Orion Nebula and
Horsehead Nebula are small
blisters on the front surface of the
molecular cloud.
– The ultraviolet light from hot stars in
these nebulae excite the atoms in the
surrounding gas causing them to
fluoresce.

15
Orion Nebula
• The Orion Nebula is a young cluster of
hot stars (ages 3x105 – 1x106 years).
• Most of the young stars are hidden by
the dust in the molecular cloud.
• Infrared radiation (longer wavelength)
can pass through the dust to show us
the interior of the cloud.

16
17
Orion Nebula
• Visible light images of the center
of the Orion Nebula reveal the four
bright stars (called the Trapezium).
• Infrared images reveal more than
500 stars in this cluster.
• Star formation is messy
(inefficient). Only a few % of the
gas is turned into stars.

18
Orion Nebula
• Distance to the Trapezium Cluster
is about 1530 LY.
– It consists of about 1800 stars
– The average age of the stars is less
than 1 million years old, some are as
young as a few hundred thousand
years.
– Largest star is an O6 (mass =50 Msun.)
19
Ground Based Image

20
HST Image

21
IR Ground Image

22
Star
Formatio
n in the
Orion
Nebula

23
Star Formation in the
Orion Nebula

24
Star Formation in the
Orion Molecular Cloud
• Looking at the ages of stars in
Orion, we see that a wave of star
formation is slowly moving through
the cloud.
– The belt stars in Orion are about 8
million years old.
– The wave began about 12 million
years ago.
25
Star Formation in the
Orion Molecular Cloud
• It seems that one generation of
stars can trigger the formation of
the next generation.
– The compressing of the gas (either
from UV light or from exploding
supernovae) can trigger star
formation in the surrounding cloud

26
Triggered Star Formation

27
The Birth of a Star
• The exact manner in which a clump
collapses to form a star is not well
understood.
– These regions are heavily obscured by dust.
– The time to collapse is typically only a few
thousand years, so relatively few new stars
are collapsing at any time.
– The collapse of a new star occurs in a region
typically 0.3 LY across. This cannot be
resolved with existing techniques.
28
The Birth of a Star
• Stage 1: An Interstellar Cloud
– In an interstellar cloud, the force of gravity
is balanced by the pressure in the cloud.
– If the cloud is squeezed by some external
event, gravity becomes stronger than the
gas pressure and the cloud begins to
collapse.
– As it collapses, the cloud will fragment into
tens, hundreds or thousands of fragments.
• There is little evidence of stars born in isolation.

29
30
31
32
33
The Birth of a Star
• Stage 2: Fragmentation
– As it collapses at first, the cloud does not
heat up, it is thin enough for the radiation to
escape.
– Once the fragment shrinks to about 100 AU
in size, the inner regions become dense
enough that radiation can no longer escape.
– As the inner regions heat up, the pressure
increases which slows the collapse.

34
The Birth of a Star
• Stage 3: Protostar
– The central temperature has risen to
106 K (fusion=107 K).
– The surface heats up to about 3000 K
due to the material falling on it.
– The protostar now has a diameter of
about 0.5 AU (about 100x the Sun).

35
As a star first begins to condense from
dust and gas clouds, it emits primarily in
which wavelength regime?
1. X-ray
2. Ultraviolet
3. Visual
4. Infrared
5. Radio

36
The Birth of a Star
– Knowing the surface temperature and
size, we can find the luminosity of the
protostar.
• Surprisingly, it turns out to be several
thousand times more luminous than our
Sun.
• Since nuclear reactions have not begun,
the luminosity is due to the release of
gravitational energy.

37
38
The Birth of a Star
• Stage 4: A Star is Born
– After 10 million years since the
collapse began, the central
temperature reaches 107 K and
protons begin fusing into helium.
– The star is still a little larger than the
Sun and, at 4500 K, is still a little
cooler.

39
The Birth of a Star
• Stage 5: Main Sequence at Last
– The star slowly contracts and interior
temperature reaches 1.5x107 K (surface
temp = 6000 K)
– At this point, the star is on the main
sequence where it will remain for some
10 billion years. The formation time
was less than 0.5% of the total lifetime
of the star.
40
The formation of a star like our Sun takes about 0.5% of its
lifetime. If the star were a person that lived for 100 years,
how long would the birth process take?

1. 1 day
2. 4 weeks
3. 6 months
4. 12 years

41
Winds and Jets
• As a protostar collapses, rotation will
support a disk of material around the
equator of the star.
• Observations show that young stars go
through a phase in which they shed a
stellar wind at speeds of 200 km/s.
– Because of the disk, the wind can escape
most easily over the poles of the star.

42
The Birth of a Star

43
44