Star forming regions as a research area focuses on the physical processes governing the collapse of molecular clouds and the subsequent birth of stars and planetary systems. This field investigates the interplay of gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, and feedback from young stellar objects using multiwavelength observations (radio to X-ray) and magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Key topics include the initial mass function, core and filament formation, protostellar accretion, disk evolution, and triggered versus spontaneous star formation. Research also addresses chemical evolution in dense cores, the role of environment (e.g., metallicity, radiation fields), and the impact of stellar feedback on regulating star formation efficiency and shaping galactic structure.
For this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month, we return to the constellation Orion (the Hunter), a location familiar to Webb. This area of the sky is replete with star-forming clouds that make up ...
Astronomy
Jun 5, 2026
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New simulations show that interactions with a magnetic field can work to decrease the distance between still forming binary protostars. These results can help explain the characteristics of the binary star systems observed ...
Astronomy
Jun 5, 2026
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Life exists because elements combine to form complex organic molecules. Astrochemistry studies this process, trying to understand how nature creates carbon-based molecules critical for life. One source for these types of ...
Astrobiology
May 31, 2026
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Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a stellar bar in GN20, a massive galaxy seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The new paper was submitted to the preprint server arXiv on May ...
The universe is full of fascinating structures, and some of the most striking take shape inside the giant clouds where stars are born. There, streams of gas appear to converge from all directions toward a dense central hub, ...
Astronomy
May 28, 2026
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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different ...
Astronomy
May 6, 2026
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A team of astrophysicists from Nanjing University and University of Bonn have demonstrated that, rather than being random, the mass of new stars born inside a star cluster is actually governed by a defined process of self-regulation. ...
Astronomy
Apr 24, 2026
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This shimmering region of star-formation, a close-up of the Trifid Nebula about 5,000 light-years from Earth, was captured in intricate detail by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The colors in Hubble's visible light image, ...
Astronomy
Apr 20, 2026
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NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than ...
Astronomy
Apr 15, 2026
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An international team led by Dr. Indrani Das of Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) has shown, for the first time, how infalling gas from star-forming cores gradually transitions into planet-forming ...
Astronomy
Apr 15, 2026
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