Heat wave signals the growth of a stellar embryo

An international research team with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) participating has detected a propagating heat wave near a massive protostar. It confirms the scenario that such objects grow in bursts. This wave became visible by observing naturally generated microwave lasers, whose spatial arrangement changed unexpectedly rapid.

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)

Artistic impression of a protostar that accretes gas from a circumstellar disk and grows. Part of the material is ejected by jets perpendicular to the plane of the disk. Gas continues to fall from the outer shell onto the disk. This can produce instabilities, which occasionally lead to increased infall onto the protostar. Since protostars are deeply embedded in dense clouds, they are difficult to observe directly.

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This animation illustrates the process of triggered star formation. First, a massive star in its final death throes explodes or "goes supernova," shooting a shock wave through surrounding clouds of gas and dust.

Next, the shock wave compresses the gas and dust, gravity kicks in, and finally, a new wave of stars is born. The whole progression, from the death of one star to the birth of others, takes millions of years to complete.