Molecular clouds range in mass from a few times the mass of our Sun (solar masses) to 10 million solar masses. Individual stars range from 0.08 to about 150 solar masses. What does all of this imply about how stars form from molecular clouds

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Physics

Phillip Frederick

28 November, 14:11

Molecular clouds range in mass from a few times the mass of our Sun (solar masses) to 10 million solar masses. Individual stars range from 0.08 to about 150 solar masses. What does all of this imply about how stars form from molecular clouds

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Lamont Baldwin · Answer 1

Explained in Depth.

Explanation:

It is all matter of what kind of stars are we talking about, for simplicity let's say we are talking about normal stars such as our sun.

If there is a molecular cloud that has a mass that is slightly larger than our sun then it is possible that the gravity will eventually pull together cloud into a sphere that would have enough mass to start nuclear fusion which is important to become a star.

Mass of such cloud would be 1.98x10^30Kg almost equal to the sun's mass.

All of this implies that stars are formed when there is enough mass to let gravity pull it all together into a sphere that has enough gravitational pull to start nuclear fusion inside the core.