FEATURE ARTICLE
Protostars
"Stellar embryology" takes a step forward with the first detailed look at the youngest Sun-like stars
Thomas Greene
Conclusion
Many of the protostars that we've observed in the infrared won't be seen in visible light for another hundred-thousand years or more. Yet we now have a fair gauge of the qualities that astronomers seek to measure for true stars: their luminosities, sizes, ages, masses, rates of rotation and the presence of circumstellar matter. It is merely a beginning. There is much that remains unanswered, and many more dark clouds must be probed for protostars. Nevertheless, even the early anatomists began their studies of embryonic development with modest descriptions. Perhaps someday the science of stellar embryology may too describe the process of star formation in fine detail.
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