Has star formation ever been observed?

Answer 1

Creations scientists say that star formation is almost impossible because of certain scientific laws that prevent it from happening. Gas naturally expands and fills its container, in space there is no container. It expands indefinitely and is very resistant to compression. They also say that gas pressure exceeds the gravity that a typical nebula creates therefore allowing them to expand without collapsing onto themselves. Another factor is the gas' magnetic field. Weak when dispersed, strong when compressed. The concentrated magnetic pressure would only cause the gas to expand again. Like trying to put two magnets together with the same pole facing each other: N-N, or S-S. They would just push apart. These are just a couple of reasons why creationists claim that we don't see stars forming.

Creationists support their claims with material that was written prior to 1986 and material that was written by people without appropriate training in astrophysics. Their claims were firmly demolished in 1993 when the Hubble Telescope began sending its first pictures of star forming areas in the galaxy. It provided evidence of star formation at all stages of the process. Modern technology uses a variety of techniques (xrays and infra red spectrometry and such) to penetrate the dust clouds of star forming mats so that we can see right to the center of the forming star. Other techniques can measure the composition of the forming star which provide information about the stage of formation that the proto-star has reached.

A star develops from a giant, slowly rotating cloud that is made up entirely or almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Due to its own gravitational pull, the cloud begins to collapse inward, and as it shrinks, it spins more and more quickly, with the outer parts becoming a disk while the innermost parts become a roughly spherical clump. This collapsing material grows hotter and denser, forming a ball-shaped proto-star. When the heat and pressure in the proto-star reaches about 1.8 degrees F (1 million degrees C), atomic nuclei that normally repel each other start fusing together, and the star ignites. Nuclear fusion converts a small amount of the mass of these atoms into extraordinary amounts of energy - for instance, 1 gram of mass converted entirely to energy would be equal to an explosion of roughly 22,000 tons of TNT.

The further away the galaxy the faster the star nurseries make stars. The current pattern suggests that there are now considerably less stars being formed than there was in the past.

Although stars form over millions to billions of years, one amateur astronomer was lucky enough to catch the actual instant when a forming star ignited. There can be no doubt, even for amateurs, that stars are continuing to form.