Star birth doesn't come from ignition, but from equilibrium

Star birth doesn't come from ignition, but from equilibrium

Wherever star-formation happens, a classic cosmic story unfolds. A spiral galaxy typically consists of four main gaseous regions within the disk: diffuse atomic gas, dense molecular gas, stars and star clusters, and ionized regions of matter arising from energy injections from star-forming regions, young stars, and stellar cataclysms. JWST, along with the other PHANGS data sources, helps reveal different aspects of this life cycle, but once a g…