formation articles
Where do all stars start to form?
The beginning of a star is a dramatic event, yet it occurs in the coldest, darkest corners of the galaxy, far from the b...
How do astronomers think the four Galilean moons of Jupiter formed?
The celestial dance of Jupiter’s four largest satellites—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—has captivated observers sin...
What were stars before they were stars?
The material that eventually ignited to become the universe’s first stars existed in a state profoundly different from t...
How do stars begin their life?
The vast, cold reaches of interstellar space are not entirely empty; they are peppered with colossal clouds of gas and d...
How does a protostar generate energy?
The creation of a star is not an instantaneous event but a drawn-out, tumultuous adolescence where gravity wrestles with...
How are the Galilean moons formed?
The four largest satellites of Jupiter, first observed telescopically by Galileo Galilei in 1610, represent a miniature ...
What were the three major components of the solar nebula?
The vast, swirling cloud of gas and dust that birthed our Sun and its attendant planets—the solar nebula—was not a homog...
What does the solar nebula contain?
The solar nebula, that vast, rotating cloud of gas and dust from which our Sun and all the planets coalesced, was a dyna...
How does star formation differ in elliptical and spiral galaxies?
The character of a galaxy, from its shape to the color of its light, is deeply tied to its history of star formation. Wh...
What is the main reason for the low star formation in elliptical galaxies?
The silent grandeur of **elliptical galaxies** often belies a long and dramatic history. Unlike their spiral cousins, wh...
What kind of evidence suggests that there is not much star formation happening in elliptical galaxies?
The visual contrast between different galaxy types immediately suggests differences in their current activity levels. Sp...