Have you and your Blasters been keeping up with recent space news? NASA recently found a protostar that is a light-year-long and shaped like a caterpillar. Protostars are knots in its early evolutionary stage, and by collecting gas, dust and other materials from its surrounding region, a protostar may eventually evolve and become young stars.
Photo by NASA
The irregular shape of the star “wanna-be” is caused by the harsh winds from 65 of the hottest, brightest known stars, classified as O-type stars. These stars are blasting ultraviolet radiation at the protostar, effectively dissolving the envelop around it. This sculpts the gas and dust surrounding the protostar into its elongated shape.
Spectroscopic observations show that the protostar is still collecting materials to bulk up its mass. Scientists predict that the final masses of these young stars from that region of the universe may be 1 to 10 times that of our Sun. However, if the O-type stars continue to erode the envelop with radiation, the final masses may reduce. Moreover, to tell whether the stars formed will be “heavy” or “light”, we can only wait.
Filed under: Current Events, Just for Fun, Science Facts Tagged: | Lightyears, NASA, Radiation, science, space, stars, sun
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