There's been a new discovery - astronomers have seen the youngest known star developing!It hasn't yet become a true star, but it has just started pulling in matter from surrounding envelopes of dust and gas. Scientists are calling this star L1448-IRS2E. They think that this star is in between the prestellar phase and the protostar phase. The prestellar phase is when a very dense region of a molecular cloud begins to clump together, and the protostar phase is when gravity has pulled enough stuff together to form the core of the star. This star is located around 800 light years away, still within our galaxy. It is in the Perseus, a star-forming region.
Scientists want to use their new 'Herchel' space telescope to look for more forming stars so that they can learn more about how stars grow and evolve. 'Stars are defined by their mass, bu we still don't know at what stage of the formation process a star acquires most of its mass,' said an assistant professor of astronomy at Yale, Hector Arce. This is one of the main things that they are trying to find out more about.
I think this is a great discovery! It just shows how much science has evolved over the years. It used to be that finding out about our solar system was huge, but now scientists can find out about stars in the Milky Way and even beyond. In a while, we'll be able to find out even more than that! Witnessing a star being born is also special because it will teach scientists a lot more about how a star is born, how it grows, and how it evolves.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617132226.htm
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