The turbulent formation of stars
Christoph Federrath
TL;DR
This paper discusses the complex physics behind star formation, highlighting its inefficiency and significance for understanding galaxy evolution, planet formation, and the universe.
Contribution
It provides insights into the turbulent processes governing star formation and addresses the challenge of explaining its low efficiency in galaxies.
Findings
Star formation is highly inefficient in galaxies.
Turbulent physics plays a key role in star formation.
Understanding star formation informs galaxy and planet evolution.
Abstract
How stars are born from clouds of gas is a rich physics problem whose solution will inform our understanding of not just stars but also planets, galaxies, and the universe itself. Star formation is stupendously inefficient. Take the Milky Way. Our galaxy contains about a billion solar masses of fresh gas available to form stars-and yet it produces only one solar mass of new stars a year. Accounting for that inefficiency is one of the biggest challenges of modern astrophysics. Why should we care about star formation? Because the process powers the evolution of galaxies and sets the initial conditions for planet formation and thus, ultimately, for life.
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