Cosmicinsightz - Within The Cosmos

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What is a protostar?

The formation of stars begins with the collapse and fragmentation of molecular clouds into very dense clumps.  These clumps initially contain ~0.01 solar masses of material, but increase in mass as surrounding material is accumulated through accretion.  The temperature of the material also increases while the area over which it is spread decreases as gravitational contraction continues, forming a more stellar-like object in the process.  During this time, and up until hydrogen burning begins and it joins the main sequence, the object is known as a protostar.

This stage of stellar evolution may last for between 100,000 and 10 million years depending on the size of the star being formed. If the final result is a protostar with more than 0.08 solar masses, it will go on to begin hydrogen burning and will join the main sequence as a normal star.  For protostars with masses less than this, temperatures are not sufficient for hydrogen burning to begin and they become brown dwarf stars.

Protostars are enshrouded in gas and dust and are not detectable at visible wavelengths.  To study this very early stage of stellar evolution, astronomers must use infrared or microwave wavelengths.

Protostars are also known as Young Stellar Objects (YSOs).

What Happens When Planets, Stars, And Black Holes Collide?

“Brown dwarf collisions. Want to make a star, but you didn’t accumulate enough mass to get there when the gas cloud that created you first collapsed? There’s a second chance available to you! Brown dwarfs are like very massive gas giants, more than a dozen times as massive as Jupiter, that experience strong enough temperatures (about 1,000,000 K) and pressures at their centers to ignite deuterium fusion, but not hydrogen fusion. They produce their own light, they remain relatively cool, and they aren’t quite true stars. Ranging in mass from about 1% to 7.5% of the Sun’s mass, they are the failed stars of the Universe.

But if you have two in a binary system, or two in disparate systems that collide by chance, all of that can change in a flash.”

Nothing in the Universe exists in total isolation. Planets and stars all have a common origin inside of star clusters; galaxies clump and cluster together and are the homes for the smaller masses in the Universe. In an environment such as this, collisions between objects are all but inevitable. We think of space as being extremely sparse, but gravity is always attractive and the Universe sticks around for a long time. Eventually, collisions will occur between planets, stars, stellar remnants, and black holes.

What happens when they run into one another? Unbelievably, we not only know, we have the evidence to back it up!

Flight Across The Universe