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Astrophysics

A dark cloud unveils its secrets

Nature volume 500, pages 537–538 (2013)Cite this article

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Massive stars, with masses ten or more times that of the Sun, dominate our Universe. Theories of how these stars form are now being challenged by observations of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust.

Stars exist with a wide variety of masses, from about one-tenth that of the Sun to at least 100 times more massive. Although we have a well-developed understanding of the formation of low-mass, Sun-like stars3, how massive ones are assembled has been shrouded in mystery. Only one out of every few hundred stars is massive. This rarity means that, in terms of stars undergoing formation, the closest examples of massive stars are much more distant than those of low-mass stars — typically thousands of light years away rather than hundreds. Furthermore, massive-star birth seems to require high densities of interstellar gas, and dust grains that are mixed throughout this gas — galactic smog — obscure our view in the optical and even infrared wavebands. To peer into the birth clouds of massive stars, astronomers have had to develop telescopes that see fine detail at longer (far-infrared and radio) wavelengths. Owing to the effect of Earth's atmosphere, sometimes these telescopes need to be sent into space, for example the Spitzer and Herschel telescopes, or located at high altitude, like ALMA.

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Figure 1: Collapsing cloud.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH /UNIV. MANCHESTER

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  1. Jonathan C. Tan is in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.,

    Jonathan C. Tan

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  1. Jonathan C. Tan
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Correspondence to Jonathan C. Tan.

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Tan, J. A dark cloud unveils its secrets. Nature 500, 537–538 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500537a

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