Pre-stellar cores are the nurseries of new

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

, and are an early phase in the formation of low-mass stars, before

gravitational collapse Gravitational collapse is the contraction of an astronomical object due to the influence of its own gravity, which tends to draw matter inward toward the center of gravity. Gravitational collapse is a fundamental mechanism for structure formatio ...

produces a central

protostar A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud. The protostellar phase is the earliest one in the process of stellar evolution. For a low-mass star (i.e. that of the Sun or lower), it lasts about 50 ...

. The spatial distribution of pre-stellar cores shows the history of their formation, and their sensitivity to the

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

controlling their creation. Most of our

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

takes place in clusters and groups within large

molecular cloud A molecular cloud, sometimes called a stellar nursery (if star formation is occurring within), is a type of interstellar cloud, the density and size of which permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydroge ...

s. These clouds are often turbulent, showing

supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

line widths and complex

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

s which play crucial roles in cloud physics. The properties of pre-stellar cores within molecular clouds aid understanding of the large-scale physical processes dictating star formation.The Mass Distribution and Lifetime of Prestellar Cores in Perseus, Serpens, and Ophiuchus
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References

Observational astronomy {{astrophysics-stub

See also

References