Our galaxy contains at least 200 billion stars. Yet the details of how they formed remain mysterious.
Scientists know that stars form from the collapse of huge hydrogen clouds...
...that are squeezed under gravity until nuclear fusion ignites.
But only about 30 percent of the cloud’s gas ends up in the newborn star.
So, where does the rest of the hydrogen go?
Astronomers had assumed that a forming star blows off gas through stellar winds and jets.
These winds and jets should stop further growth of the star.
They should also create cavities in the surrounding gas that widen until the cloud dissipates.
But a new study shows something different.
Using observations from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory...
...researchers studied 304 developing stars in a region called the Orion Complex.
They found that the cavities around the stars did not grow over time, as expected.
In fact, the cavities don’t seem to expand until the stars push out all of the gas in the cloud.
If stars don't end up isolated in cavities, why doesn't the gas find its way into the star?
For now, the answer remains a mystery.
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