Was the Birth of the Sun Natural or Induced?
The Sun was formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a giant molecular cloud. There are a number of ways this might have happened. The cloud first fragments into a ribbon of dense cores. The cores may then condense naturally under their own weight. Or a compression shockwave from a nearby supernova might induce one or more cores to collapse.
This is the sixth in a series of posts on the Oxford University Press TUMBLR site.
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