Stars born in filaments tend to outweigh stars formed in the field
Friday, November 8, 2013 - 13:31
in Astronomy & Space
The mass distribution of stars is called the initial mass function, or IMF for short, and it characterizes the properties not only of our Milky Way, but of all the other galaxies we observe as well. But is the IMF constant? Does it vary from galaxy to galaxy? Does it vary within our galaxy? After decades of studying we still are not sure how the environment affects the process of star formation, aside from the fact that the IMF seems peculiarly constant within the Milky Way.