The Physics Of The Cloud - 1445 Words

The life (and, sometimes, death) cycle of a star begins when gravity triumphs over heat. This results in a cloud, composed of gasses and minerals, losing balance, and beginning to contract. Balance for the cloud is not restored, until several radical changes have been experienced by the cloud, and have, subsequently, altered the cloud. Stars start their early stages in the form of the above-aforementioned, as what is known as an interstellar cloud. Following the creation of this cloud, the star then passes through seven basic evolutionary stages. Characteristics of these seven stages are various centralised temperatures - including those on the surface - densities, and sizes, of the pre-star object. The process begins with a cold, dark,†¦show more content†¦However, if a star is born, these clouds can become unstable, and can even collapse under their own gravity resulting in them breaking up into much smaller pieces of their original forms. Evidence suggests that this process is triggered as the result of an external event - a shock wave of nearby stellar explosions [supernova] or, perhaps, the pressure wave ripple of another cloud as it forms a star and ionises its own surroundings. An additional theory suggests that a magnetic field is responsible for the cloud retaining its form and then fading away as its charged particles drift off into space, thus the leftover gasses are unable to support the cloud s remaining weight. Over a few million years, the collapsing process is thought to produce several smaller clouds which have broken off from the parent cloud after it has become unstable and which, in turn, copy the parent by collapsing, breaking apart, and so on. All of these theories, however different, result in the same conclusion: the formation of several different types of stars, which a single interstellar cloud can then produce. Stage 2 of a star s formation is the Cloud Fragment stage. This stage occurs in one of the aforementioned fragments of cloud which have broken off from the parent cloud. Cloud fragments which might then become stars will contain between one and two Sols of material [Sols are a unit of measurement] and will appear as