PHYS 183 Lecture Notes - Molecular Cloud
Document Summary
Lecture 21: february 27th, 2013 the single most important feature of a star is it"s mass it determines everything. We are going to start with star birth. A star birth is more like a formation event. Nebula: large cloud of gas in the universe. Most of the matter in giant molecular clouds is in the form of molecules (h2, co) as opposed to single atoms. Wavelengths (like infrared) provide a lot of information about hidden processes. Due to collapses of high density areas in clouds of gas stars can only form if gravity can overcome the thermal pressure of gas thermal pressure depends on temperature & density. Phys 183 the milky way inside and out tracy webb. Gravity becomes stronger in the regions of higher density so the collapse increases this causes the cloud to fragment into multiple pieces the smaller fragments form individual stars.
