McMaster University | 2018 Jun 26
Clusters of stars across the vast reaches of time and space of the entire universe were all created the same way, researchers at McMaster University have determined.
Researchers Corey Howard, Ralph Pudritz and William Harris, authors of a paper published June 25 in the journal Nature Astronomy, used highly sophisticated computer simulations to re-create what happens inside gigantic clouds of concentrated gases known to give rise to clusters of stars that are bound together by gravity. ...
The state-of-the-art simulations follow a cloud of interstellar gas 500 light-years in diameter, projecting 5 million years’ worth of evolution wrought by turbulence, gravity and feedback from intense radiation pressure produced by massive stars within forming clusters.
The research shows how those forces create dense filaments that funnel gas into what ultimately become super-bright clusters of stars that can merge with other clusters to form vast globular clusters. ...
A Universal Route for the Formation of Massive Star Clusters
in Giant Molecular Clouds - Corey S. Howard, Ralph E. Pudritz, William E. Harris
- Nature Astronomy (online 25 Jun 2018) DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0506-0