How does the shockwave from a nearby supernova explosion trigger star formation?
Answer
It compresses the gas, briefly creating a region of much higher density.
A supernova explosion generates a massive blast wave of rapidly expanding, superheated gas that sweeps through the interstellar medium. As this shell moves outward, it encounters and sweeps up the ambient molecular gas. This sweeping action results in severe, albeit temporary, compression of the gas clouds in its path, drastically increasing their local particle density. If this rapid compression elevates the local density sufficiently so that the region's mass surpasses its localized Jeans Mass threshold ($M_J$), gravitational collapse begins almost immediately within that highly compressed zone.
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What Initiates Molecular Cloud Collapse? - Physics Frontier - YouTube
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