Pre-stellar cores are thenurseries of newstars, and are an early phase in the formation of low-mass stars, beforegravitational collapse produces a centralprotostar. The spatial distribution of pre-stellar cores shows the history of their formation, and their sensitivity to thephysics controlling their creation.
Most of ourGalaxy'sstar formation takes place inclusters and groups within largemolecular clouds. These clouds are often turbulent, showingsupersonic line widths and complexmagnetic fields 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.[1]
Pre-stellar cores are hundreds of thousands ofsolar masses of dust and gas collapsing due to the influence ofgravity. Thedensity is much greater than theaverage interstellar density having around one thousand atoms per cubic centimeter as opposed to the one atom per cubic centimeter in theinterstellar medium.[2]
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