Suppose an Earth-like planet was orbiting a star 100 parsecs from the Sun. The total lifetime of our Sun is about 10 billion years. In this question we are going to examine the conditions which could have resulted in the formation of the Sun.
Stars form from the gravitational collapse of molecular clouds in interstellar space.
In order to collapse the gas must be placed in a small enough volume so that the gravitational weight can overcome the gas pressure. This might occur, for instance, as the result of a shock wave from a supernova explosion. Speculate about what physical conditions are needed for molecules to form in interstellar space. Speculate about the possibility of life forms or biological processes occurring in GMCs, and on the possibility that GMCs may have been the seeds for life on Earth. Back to home page.