Billions of years before Van Gogh put paint to canvas and immortalized them forever, the stars in the sky were nothing more than an intricate tangle of magnetic fields and swirling gas. Turn the clock back with us as we learn about the physics of these protostellar systems! Northwestern/CIERA postdoctoral associate Erin G. Cox teaches us about the polarization patterns of Class 0 and Class I systems, and Will gets all turbulated as he discovers how HII regions might drive star formation.

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2021/05/05/inflating-hii-regions-cause-star-formation-to-pop/

https://astrobites.org/2020/08/05/protostar-polarization/

Erin’s website: 

https://sites.northwestern.edu/eringcox/

Space sound: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8qdJsLqR7w

Credit: System Sounds (M. Russo & A. Santaguida) and NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand