Astronomy 1021 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Eagle Nebula, Molecular Cloud, Star Formation

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 1021
• Professor: Sarah Gallagher

Document Summary

Molecular gas in our galaxy, the densest regions are the brightest. Cold (10-30 k) and dense: gas is in molecular phase, lots of dust. Just like stars molecular clouds are mostly h, nut in molecular form. H2 is almost invisible because molecular clouds are so cold. Map in carbon monoxide made with a radio telescope. Hubble outlines of dusty pillars: stars are forming in the densest parts. Spitzer sees newly formed stars deeply embedded in the dusty pillars. The ingredients for star formation: cold gas and dust, gravity. What pushes back: magnetic fields, random motions of gas, rotational motion of gas. Gravity vs. thermal pressure: where gravity wins: density goes up. In the densest clumps one or more stars can form. These contain just 15 msun of gas enough for a few, small stars. Maybe only one star will form here. Gas clouds always have some small amount of rotation.