The image on the left shows that the positions of molecular clouds (blue) and young stars (pink) do not coincide on small spatial scales. The two branches on the right quantify this displacement by showing that molecular clouds and young stars are correlated only when ’averaged’ over a large part of the galaxy (1,000 parsecs, corresponding to 3,000 light years). |
Young stars heat molecular clouds and drive hot interstellar gas bubbles throughout galaxies. Star formation within interstellar clouds of gas and dust, so-called molecular clouds, proceeds very rapidly yet highly "inefficiently". Most of the gas is dispersed by stellar radiation, revealing galaxies to be highly dynamic systems, like "cosmic cauldrons", consisting of components that constantly change their appearance. Based on new observations of the NGC 300 spiral galaxy, a team of scientists led by astrophysicist Dr Diederik Kruijssen from Heidelberg University has now managed for the first time to reconstruct the time-evolution of molecular clouds and the star formation process within them. Their analysis shows that these clouds are short-lived structures undergoing rapid lifecycles, driven by the intense radiation from the new-born stars. The findings were published in "Nature". The observed intensity of star formation in the NGC 300 spiral galaxy can be explained in two ways.
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