Animations by
Walt Feimer
Released on January 26, 2010
Stellar nurseries are dense clouds of gas in interstellar space. Protostars form as the gas begins to clump due to gravity. These protostars heat up due to the compression of material taking place in them and throw off material at high speeds, creating shockwaves. As the shockwaves propogate throughout the cloud of gas they can trigger additional protostar formation.