Astronomers for decades have offered a persuasive argument to explain how stars are born: one of the huge, tenuous clouds of gas and dust that pervade the galaxy collapses under its own weight, heats up dramatically and bursts into nuclear flame. Until now though, this has been only a model. But in a report to be published in the Oct. 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers will announce that they finally have supporting evidence. Says Charles Lada, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona: "We've detected what we believe to be the actual collapse of a...
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