An article at Space.com reports that astronomers are witnessing the birth of a star and realizing that a previously-unknown force seems to be at work — illustrating again how limited our knowledge of the universe is:
The best look ever inside a womb of star birth reveals a force at work astronomers were not aware of.
Like a
baby’s first ultrasound, scientists peered into a stellar envelope to
capture the earliest and most detailed view of a collapsing cloud of
gas and dust, NASA (news – web sites) announced Tuesday. The images were made mostly with the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory.Some
previously unrealized energetic process, likely related to magnetic
fields, is superheating parts of the cloud, nudging it to become a
star, scientists said.The detection of X-rays from the cold stellar precursor surprised
astronomers. The observations reveal that matter is falling toward the
core 10 times faster than gravity could account for.
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