Gas clouds yes, not new stars

2009/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

Clarify what causes not to believe stars in several gas clouds

According to a group of researchers at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, the charged atoms found in the molecules of the dust and gas clouds of the universe cause no stars to form in all these clouds.

Clouds of dust and gas are everywhere in the universe and condensed by the force of gravity. However, observations show that stars occur in a very small percentage. This means that there must be some other force to neutralize the effect of gravity.

Astrophysicists have proposed two options to explain it. Some believe that atoms loaded with cloud molecules create magnetic fields that defy gravity. Other researchers believe that cloud turbulence is responsible. Just as the wind lifts the leaves from the ground and dust, the turbulence of the dust clouds would mix the dust particles preventing their condensation.

However, until now no one had proof that only one of these two ideas was endorsed. Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center have found proof in favor of the former. Specifically, the emission of polarized light in dense areas of several clouds has been studied. It is observed that the polarized light emitted in these zones is aligned with the polarized light emitted throughout the cloud. The behavior of polarized light suggests, according to the researchers, that behind there is a magnetic field and that light is aligned according to the lines of that magnetic field. They also say that if turbulence prevailed, some magnetic fields and others would hardly appear aligned.