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23 Comments
- dvnt1, on 06/23/2009, -0/+11Beautiful! We should feel thankful and reverent to have such insight. Science!
- lurrker, on 06/23/2009, -1/+12Uhh, I think we saw many stars completely form.. those little points of white around the gas/plasma that got spun off.
- Dreeon, on 06/23/2009, -0/+10I think you mean, "how is babby star formed?"
- dvnt1, on 06/23/2009, -0/+7You are watching a simulation of the coalescence of a spherical molecular gas cloud under its own gravity, being run on a computer. This is how stars are formed.
- MJPana, on 06/23/2009, -3/+9I wish they had shown more into the process (i.e. keep the simulation rolling till we saw the star form completely) but that was pretty cool nonetheless
- danlowlite, on 06/23/2009, -0/+5When a mommy star and a daddy star love each other very much...
- robbob, on 06/23/2009, -1/+6I'm trippin' out on science
- dvnt1, on 06/23/2009, -0/+4Lurrker is exactly right.
- MJPana, on 06/23/2009, -1/+2Ah, that makes sense. Duno why I didn't realize that in the first place, but thanks for clearing that up.
- uptwolait, on 06/23/2009, -0/+1She blinded me...with Science!
- vizerei, on 06/23/2009, -0/+1And how do you know th at these magnetic filaments aren't part of the simulation?
- stread, on 06/23/2009, -1/+2I fail to make the connection between this video and "Def Jam Poetry - Daniel Beaty "Knock Knock"" listed under the related videos section.
- pln2bz, on 06/23/2009, -3/+3The magnetically-confined filaments are cohesive structures that persist for the period of star formation. They do not fly apart like a spinning water hose, as this simulation suggests.
There is the theory of how star formation occurs -- which is beautifully exemplified by this simulation -- and then there are observations of star formation within actual emission nebulae like the Orion A radio source, which completely lacks ANY signs of turbulence that are shown here in this simulation. The magnetic filaments are not disrupted by the process of stellar formation. Instead, the process of stellar formation appears to actually result from the magnetic filaments.
What's happening is that our theories for stellar formation are being tested by increasingly accurate observations of stellar formation. Rather than just paying attention to computer simulations that demonstrate what we expect to happen, we can now also look at actual images of stellar formation, like in the image here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=bUVQM_BAFlMC& ...
There is an arms race in the telescope industry right now. We're on the verge of getting radio telescope imagery that is as detailed as the Hubble optical imagery. This is incredibly important because the radio spectrum is 1000x more bandwidth than the slim optical bandwidth. As these improvements are made, it is incredibly important that people keep an open mind about what we are about to witness. It is possible to "know too much" when it comes to making new discoveries. There was actually a time when astronomers refused to acknowledge that space could even generate radio waves. It was due to the diligence of those who did not know too much that the radio spectrum has been fully opened up. And to be honest, the radio bands have not exactly confirmed the pre-existing theories. It's been a never-ending slew of surprises that conventional theory has had much difficulty keeping up with.
Rather than letting ourselves become upset by these developments, we should embrace whatever the observations tell us -- even if it means admitting that the educations we've been giving our astrophysicists has been wrong. But the first step is to realize the difference between expectations (simulations) and observations. - Kautylia, on 06/23/2009, -2/+2Well, when a star loves another star...
- Lazydriver, on 06/23/2009, -2/+1Also, Mr. Babby Man didn't post this, so you get dugg down for improper use of meme.
- CATSCEO2, on 06/23/2009, -3/+2Dude, its ***** stars!
- pln2bz, on 06/23/2009, -3/+2It's a very pretty simulation, but it's unfortunately not how stars form. Stars are observed to form along magnetically-confined filaments. The turbulence presented is not observed in observations of stellar formation (like in the Orion nebula). Careful observation reveals that it's the twisting of the filaments themselves around one another that leads to stellar formation. The problem is that there is a bit of a mismatch between theory (presented in this video) and radio telescope observations, which generally support the view that electromagnetic forces play a key role in stellar formation.
- kkm3, on 06/23/2009, -2/+0Thank GOD for such insight! If he didn't think of making these random but awesome phenomenons and then also didn't give us telescopes and other equipment to see such things it would suck.
GO GOD! - NewMarkOrder, on 06/23/2009, -4/+1Wow. I love these kinds of videos. No idea what I'm watching, but Wow.
- tyebud, on 06/23/2009, -5/+1Yo dawg I heard you like stars
- Nekateman, on 06/23/2009, -8/+3how is baby star formed?
- lamberticus, on 06/23/2009, -7/+1This is how Sanjaya was created.
- InfiniteNothing, on 06/23/2009, -7/+1Shopped
Gen 1:13 "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also."
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