What necessary condition characterizes the cold pockets within interstellar clouds where star formation begins?
Answer
Temperatures hovering around 10 Kelvin or colder
The extremely low temperature, around 10 Kelvin or colder, ensures that gas atoms move slowly enough for the inward pull of gravity to overcome the outward thermal motion.
Related Questions
What is the fundamental engine driving gas and dust clouds to condense into shining stars?What necessary condition characterizes the cold pockets within interstellar clouds where star formation begins?What theoretical concept describes the minimum mass a cloud fragment needs to overcome internal pressure and begin gravitational contraction?What are the two primary physical mechanisms that actively oppose gravity by stabilizing molecular clouds against collapse?By what process is gravitational potential energy transformed into heat within a shrinking core?What is the energy source powering a protostar before it officially becomes a true star capable of fusion?What phenomenon causes surrounding material to flatten into a rotating disk around a contracting protostar?What event marks the transition of a contracting object into a visible T Tauri star?What is the approximate core temperature required to ignite sustained nuclear fusion, transitioning an object into a main-sequence star?What state defines a stable main-sequence star like the Sun?