Three Problems with Massive Stars Formation
2012-06-22
00:00
C5B/031 (C5B/031, Bellaterra)
Among the stellar population, massive stars are rare relative to low-mass stars. Despite their smaller number, they strongly influence the evolution of galaxies.
Massive stars appear to be difficult to form. Physical conditions in molecular clouds that give birth to massive stars imply a typical Jeans mass of approximately 1 Msun. This creates a puzzle for massive star formation since dense cores much larger than the Jeans mass tend to fragment into less massive cores. Once protostars rea …