Open main menu

Protostar

Revision as of 12:34, 13 March 2019 by NRJC (talk | contribs) (Created page with "==Key Stage 4== right|300px|thumb|An artists impression of a [[protostar with a disk of gas an dust still circling it.]] ===Meaning=== A protostar...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Key Stage 4

 
An artists impression of a protostar with a disk of gas an dust still circling it.

Meaning

A protostar is a star that has just formed from a nebula but is not yet hot enough for fusion to occur in its core.

About Protostars

The collapse of the nebula to form a protostar transfers energy from the gravitational potential energy store of the gas and dust to the thermal energy store of the gas and dust, so it glows.
The core of the protostar is not yet hot enough to undergo nuclear fusion.
There is a disk of gas and dust around the protostar which will eventually form the planetary system.