                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 June 23

                   STARFORGE: A Star Formation Simulation
      Video & Text Credit: Michael Y. Grudić (Northwestern U.) et al.,
                          STARFORGE Collaboration;
         Music: Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4 in E Minor (Frédéric Chopin)

   Explanation: How do stars form? Most form in giant molecular clouds
   located in the central disk of a galaxy. The process is started,
   influenced, and limited by the stellar winds, jets, high energy
   starlight, and supernova explosions of previously existing stars. The
   featured video shows these complex interactions as computed by the
   STARFORGE simulation of a gas cloud 20,000 times the mass of our Sun.
   In the time-lapse visualization, lighter regions indicate denser gas,
   color encodes the gas speed (purple is slow, orange is fast), while
   dots indicate the positions of newly formed stars. As the video begins,
   a gas cloud spanning about 50 light years begins to condense under its
   own gravity. Within 2 million years, the first stars form, while newly
   formed massive stars are seen to expel impressive jets. The simulation
   is frozen after 4.3 million years, and the volume then rotated to gain
   a three-dimensional perspective. Much remains unknown about star
   formation, including the effect of the jets in limiting the masses of
   subsequently formed stars.

                   Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

