University of Colorado
Astronomers Discover Building Block of Stars

Two Boulder astronomers and their colleagues in California have discovered a key building block for new stars in the rapidly expanding remains of a 100,000-year old stellar explosion.

Brian Rachford, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, and Jason Tumlinson, a doctoral student in CU's astrophysical and planetary sciences department, presented the results of their study at the 197th meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week in Pasadena, California.

The birth of new stars begins in cold, dark clouds of molecular hydrogen, which begin to form when individual hydrogen atoms join together in pairs.

She Monoceros Loop Supernova Remnant under study resulted from the cataclysmic explosion of a star about 5,000 light-years from Earth. The supernova has formed a shell of gas 350 light-years across that is still expanding at a rate of 100,000 mph. One light-year is equal to roughly 6 trillion miles.

The astronomers also plan to observe other supernovae in order to see if fast-moving molecular hydrogen gas clouds are a common feature in older exploded star remnants.