New stars in Ophiuchi

[wadoman699]

Has anyone ever observed a new star coming into existence? I.e., taken photos of a portion of the sky one day and the next they observe a star there?

[starnut]

Has anyone ever observed a new star coming into existence? I.e., taken photos of a portion of the sky one day and the next they observe a star there?

Nope, not possible. The "birth" of a star involves a localized collapse in a giant molecular cloud, and the process takes hundreds of thousands years. The proto-star will not begin to shine and give off enough heat to make us take notice of it until after nuclear fusion commences in its core. It takes that long for matter to accumulate and build up pressure in the center of the fetal star. After all, it takes 9 months to produce a human being.

[wadoman699]

Right. But suppose that collapse has been going on and the ignition just happens to take place at a time (however many light years distant the star is) such that the light from the ignition reaches say, tomorrow night. Wouldn't we then see it? Today the light from the ignition has not yet arrived but arrives tomorrow. Has this happened? Or am I missing something?

[Doum]

From what i read a star will get born inside a giant cloud after accretion. In the center of that cloud a star get born but the cloud surounding it forbid us to see it. It will be seen after a few thousand years. Or the time needed for the cloud surounding it to disappear away and let the light out. But it might be possible to see it in infrared wavelenght or not because of the density of the cloud. Hmmm we might see it someday yea.

[wadoman699]

Got it. Thank you very much.

[harry]

Hello All

Just read this, maybe of interest.


Was the brightest supernova the birth of a quark star?

http://space.newscientist.com/channel/a ... gy/dn12514