Stars form via gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores. But observations reveal that far less gas is turned into stars than you would suspect by naively calculating the star formation rate. So what can we do about this mismatch?
Why do planetary disks fade away so fast? A leading candidate as villain in this story is turbulence. Using the combined strengths of sophisticated theoretical models and observations, we might be able to find out if this is true!
Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe. Everything including stars, solar systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and even large scale voids have magnetic fields. We know magnetic fields exist in the Universe, but have had a challenging time uncovering both their origin and evolution. Today’s astrobite discusses a recent paper exploring how magnetic fields evolved in young galaxies through computational simulations. It is one step further in unlocking the history of magnetic fields in our Universe.
Douglas Adams’ fictional Ford Prefect famously warned us of eddies in the spacetime continuum. Has the IBEX spacecraft now found evidence that they really exist?
Most simulations to date have implied that satellite galaxies traveling through galaxy clusters are stripped of gas for future star formation in a process known as “strangulation”. In contrast, the authors of this paper suggest that satellite galaxies may not be as cut off as some might think: instead, their simulations show that the cooler, stripped gas from the corona will mix with the surrounding intra-cluster medium and remain near the original galaxy as a potential new source of star-forming fuel.
In this article the authors simulate the collapse of a magnetized, turbulent molecular cloud core to see if rotationally supported discs can form around central protostars.