Magnetic fields regulate how stars are born from massive clouds of interstellar gas.
A team led by Francesco Fontani at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence, Italy, used high-resolution data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array telescope in northern Chile to create detailed maps of a particular gas cloud. They found that the gas collapsed under the force of gravity and fragmented, forming a string of clumps that aligned themselves with the magnetic field. The clumps will eventually form the cores of future stars.
The study's findings confirm theoretical predictions that magnetic fields play a major part in where proto-stars form.
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Magnetism drives star birth. Nature 538, 8 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/538008b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/538008b