To understand how the universe was formed and how we got here, ancient stars are some of the best objects to study — yet astronomers know surprisingly little about the conditions in which they were formed. Dominant cosmological theories posit that stars are formed in molecular clouds that are sufficiently large and dense that it has the conditions necessary to create new stars. These same experts have been uncertain, however, about some of the specifics of those conditions. What is it really like in those interstellar nurseries known as molecular clouds?
According to a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal, some of the molecular clouds out of which stars are formed can be captured by an adjective one does not often associate with stars: fluffy.
