{(Extract: Birth of a Star)}[1st July 1988]

[Redbook5:198-199][19880701.1753b]{(Extract: Birth of a Star)}[1st July 1988]

.1753

[continued]

'Astronomers have found that the blobs of gas {held together by their own gravity, in the centre of interstellar gas clouds} collapse in rather an odd way. The central parts of a blob fall inwards rather quickly, while the outer parts follow at a more leisurely rate. The blobs are also rotating, quite slowly, but as the outer parts fall inwards, they begin to spin more rapidly – just as ice-skaters spin more quickly when they draw in their arms. As a result,* the infalling gas forms a disc around the newly born star at the centre, where the gas is compressed enough for nuclear reactions to start. Within this disc, the gas and the dust that is mixed in it eventually form into a new set of planets orbiting the new star.

'Once the star is shining, it produces a powerful 'wind' of hot gas that forces its way outwards in opposite directions, above and below the disc.'**

*??

**N[ew ]S[cientist], 880602, 1615, 'Inside Science', p2.

[PostedBlogger07082018]