- Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC) of dust and gas
exist in the interstellar medium in our Galaxy,
the Milky Way, and other galaxies.
- Shock waves, either from supernova explosions
or the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy itself,
induce collapse in these GMCs.
- The GMC fragments into many smaller cloudlets,
which continue to collapse
larger mass cloudlets collapse faster
(105 years for a 10
Msun cloudlet) than smaller mass cloudlets (
5 x 107 years for a 1 Msun cloudlet)
a stellar nursury forms.
II-2Next