A team of astronomers have found a new way to observe molecular clouds coming together, leading to rapid star formation.
in their work. They compared the distribution of three components of the ISM in Cygnus X: ionized carbon, molecular carbon monoxide and atomic hydrogen. SOFIA’s unique capabilities allowed it to spot faint CII radiation from the periphery of the clouds that’s never before been detected. The new research shows that star formation can happen much more rapidly than thought. That rapidity might also explain how massive stars form.
Cygnus X is a vast agglomeration of clouds of luminous gas and dust. Observations of spectral lines of ionized carbon showed that the clouds have formed there over several million years. In astronomy, that is a very fast process.
Massive stars are defined as those 8 times more massive than the Sun. They’re particularly interesting to astrophysicists because they’re so rare: less than 1% of stars in the Milky Way are massive. Several types of feedback impede their formation. Outflows, radiation pressure and magnetic fields are all barriers to stars becoming massive. Massive stars also emit massive amounts of material from the polar jets as they form, further restricting their growth.
Contrary to previous understanding, the researchers found that the interstellar gas clouds, whose shells are made of molecular hydrogen, are travelling more rapidly than thought, at up to 20 km s. “This high speed compresses the gas into denser molecular regions where new, mainly massive stars form. We needed the CII observations to detect this otherwise ‘dark’ gas,” said lead author Schneider.
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