www.✰.net

Star Creates Jetstream

January 1, 2008 on 11:06 pm | In Astronomy, Stars |

Astronomers have now found new evidence of matter that spirals outward from a young star like a jetstream. Due to this spiral motion, the jets help the star to grow by drawing momentum from the surrounding disk. Angular momentum is the tendency for a spinning object to continue spinning. It applies to star formation because a star forms at the center of a rotating disk of hydrogen gas. A star grows by gathering material from the disk. However, gas cannot fall inward toward the star until that gas sheds its excess angular momentum. As hydrogen nears the star, a fraction of the gas is ejected outward perpendicular to the disk in opposite directions, like water from a fire hose, in a bipolar jet. If the gas spirals around the axis of the jet, then it will carry angular momentum with it away from the star.