The birth of 2,000 stars, from 0.01 to 100 Msun

Volume rendering of a turbulent cold ISM region showing a complex gas density distribution, with a network of intersecting filaments where stars are formed. Bright spots show the position of stars. The process of star formation is followed for approximately one million years, after which 2% of the cloud mass has been converted into stars (visualization by Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames).

Evolution of the Density Field

Volume rendering of a turbulent cold ISM region...... (visualization by Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames).

Rotation and Zoom in

Evolution with Self-Gravity

SFR per free-fall time, εff , versus tff /tdyn. The symbols for each series of runs, where only the strength of gravity is changed and Ms and Ma are kept constant, are connected by a line, to better distinguish each series. The two error bars give the mean of εff, plus and minus the rms values, for each group of five 323-root-grid runs with identical parameters (Ms ≈ 10 and Ma ≈ 5), but different initial conditions. The dashed line is an approximate exponential fit to the minimum value of εff versus tff/tdyn.