April 12, 2011

Herschel unravels the thread of star formation in the Gould Belt

An intricate network of filamentary structure, exposed in extraordinary detail by the Herschel Space Observatory, has provided new evidence for how stars form from the diffuse interstellar medium. These filaments, located in giant molecular clouds in the Gould Belt, all exhibit remarkably similar widths - about one third of a light year - but only the densest ones contain pre-stellar cores, the seeds of future stars. These data suggest star formation is a two-step process: first turbulence stirs up the gas, giving rise to a web-like structure, then gravity takes over and governs the further fragmentation of filaments into stars.

This colour-composite image of IC 5146 shows the extended filamentary structure of this star-forming cloud.
This colour-composite image of IC 5146 shows the extended filamentary structure of this star-forming cloud.

This work, colaboration of an international team coordinated by the Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay (CEA/Irfu-Paris Diderot-CNRS) were published on-line in Astronomy and Astrophysics on April 13, 2011.

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