Telescopes give clues to star births

WASHIGTON, D.C., March 14 (UPI) -- Astronomers using U.S. and European telescopes say they've obtained a first tantalizing look at a crucial early stage in star formation

The new observations using radio and infrared telescopes will help scientists understand the early stages of a sequence of events through which a giant cloud of gas and dust collapses into dense cores that, in turn, form new stars, a release from the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory said Wednesday.

Using the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, scientists studied a giant cloud about 770 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus.

They made detailed observations of a clump of gas and dust containing nearly 100 times the mass of the sun within that cloud, they said.

Astronomers believe stars are formed when such a cloud of gas and dust collapses gravitationally, first into clumps, then into dense cores, each of which can then begin to further collapse and form a young star. The details of the process are not well understood, however.

"We have found the first clear case of a clump of potentially star-forming gas that is on the verge of forming dense cores, and is unaffected by any nearby stars," James Di Francesco of the University of Victoria in Canada, said.

"Finding such a 'pristine' clump of gas that may be starting to form dense cores is a key to gaining a fuller understanding of the early stages of star formation," Sarah Sadavoy, a graduate student also at the University of Victoria, said. "This is a rare find."

The entire clump, the researchers said, could be expected to form about 10 new stars.