Stars form from the gravitational contraction of large gas clouds. This process may occur in two different modes: It may be fast, with a characteristic timescale dictated by the free fall of gas onto the forming stars, or it may be slow, sustained by turbulence and magnetic field. In the former case stars form over a short period, while in
OB associations have a rich population of massive stars (O and B stars), which are young and typically dispersed over large regions of the sky. While these massive stars can be easily recognized thanks to their intense luminosity, it is very hard to select the low mass stars belonging to OB associations. This because without evident stellar concentrations, these stars
Stars form from the gravitational collapse of large interstellar clouds. During the process, the clouds fragment in smaller clouds, forming clusters and associations of stars counting from few tens to several hundred thousands stars. The star formation process typically is not a monolithic process, e.g. with a single large event of star formation occurring rapidly and forming all the stars
In the Milky Way one of the main modes of star formation is in stellar clusters, which remain associated with their parental cloud for about 5-10 million years. This makes the star forming regions complex targets, characterised by rich stellar populations packed into small regions, sometime even with massive stars, and clouds whose morphology and properties are affected by the
OB associations are groups of massive stars (with spectral type O and B, more massive than 3.5 solar masses) which typically cover wide regions in the sky. The presence of such a rich population of massive stars suggests the presence of even a larger population of low-mass stars. There exists, in fact, a relation between the number of stars in
di Mario Giuseppe Guarcello ( segui mguarce) È stato pubblicato sul sito del satellite Chandra della NASA un articolo (link) interamente dedicato agli studi INAF-OAPA/CfA della regione di formazione stellare nota come Nebulosa dell’Aquila o M16, contenente l’ammasso stellare NGC 6611, realizzato con vari telescopi operativi in diverse bande dello spettro elettromagnetico, tra cui il satellite Chandra della
During their short existence lasting only few million years, massive stars (more massive than 8 solar masses with spectral type O and B-early) strongly affect the surrounding environment thanks to their intense UV radiation and stellar winds. A single O star, in fact, can loose about 10-6 solar masses of gas in a wind reaching velocities of 1600–2500 km s−1 (Stevens & Hartwell, 2003).
Stars in several star forming regions are observed with a spread in age. This support the idea that star formation is a “slow” process which can propagate across a molecular cloud over million of years (as suggested, for instance, by the Palla & Stahler 2000 study), while several authors have instead suggested that star formation is a “fast” process (e.g.
The study of star-forming regions of our Galaxy is one of the main research topic of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. This because they can provide crucial information on how large molecular clouds collapse and form stars, on the early stellar evolutionary stages, on the formation of planetary systems, the formation and dispersion of protoplanetary disks, and the history and
di Mario Giuseppe Guarcello ( segui mguarce) Poche ma estremamente importanti…. Le stelle con masse maggiori di 6 masse solari ed una temperatura efficace maggiore di 15000 gradi (stelle O e stelle B1-B5) sono particolarmente rare nell’Universo e la loro evoluzione si compie in pochi milioni di anni, un tempo piuttosto breve se paragonato ai miliardi di anni
