Ancient stars are crucial to understanding how the universe was formed, but scientists know little about the conditions in which they were born. A recent study of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way, has revealed that some molecular clouds can be fluffy, contradicting long-held assumptions about star formation.
Researchers at Japan’s Kyushu University and Osaka Metropolitan University studied 17 distinct molecular clouds associated with massive young stellar objects. They found that even if filaments form during star formation, their structures may become less prominent and transition to a lower-temperature state in “fluffy” clouds.
The study used the ALMA radio telescope to capture higher-resolution images of the SMC, which contains approximately twenty percent of the heavy elements of the Milky Way. The researchers concluded that stars can be formed in diverse structures, but there are systematic differences in the physical properties of filamentary and non-filamentary clouds.
Filamentary clouds tend to have smaller velocity dispersions relative to their column densities and exhibit higher temperatures, while fluffy clouds have faster velocities and a wider width relative to their columns’ density. The study’s findings provide new insights into the formation and evolution of molecular clouds and the universe.
The research has implications for our understanding of how molecular clouds form and evolve under different conditions. Dr. Kazuki Tokuda, lead author of the study, hopes that future studies will deepen our understanding of these processes.
Source: https://www.salon.com/2025/02/22/a-recipe-for-baby-stars-just-add-fluffy-molecular-clouds