Gas and dust pulled together by gravity until a star is formed. But reaching this critical mass is not so easy. The Path to Collapse Gravity makes the cloud collapse. Kinetic Energy Gas particles speed up and collide. The temperature increases.
Energy is radiated away.
As the cloud fragment shrinks due to gravity, it spins faster. Angular Momentum Collapse occurs preferentially along path of least rotation. The cloud fragment collapses into a central core surrounded by a disk of material. The disk around the central core will fragment further, producing rings of material. The central core is called a protostar.