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Molecular cloud — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T22:35:23.246Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 76f4937aa2212c930905968043cd16d6e136377923af0ec0370b6f73abc569a4
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_2129187bc035

How to cite

Molecular cloud — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_2129187bc035 (Metraipolis archive dc_2129187bc035, sha256 76f4937aa2212c930905968043cd16d6e136377923af0ec0370b6f73abc569a4)

BibTeX

@misc{dc2129187bc035,
  title = {Molecular cloud — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_2129187bc035; sha256 76f4937aa2212c930905968043cd16d6e136377923af0ec0370b6f73abc569a4},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

A molecular cloud—sometimes called a stellar nursery if star formation is occurring within—is a type of interstellar cloud of which the density and size permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydrogen, H2), and the formation of H II regions. This is in contrast to other areas of the interstellar medium that contain predominantly ionized gas. Molecular hydrogen is difficult to detect by infrared and radio observations, so the molecule most often used to determine the presence of H2 is carbon monoxide (CO). The ratio between CO luminosity and H2 mass is thought to be constant, although there are reasons to doubt this assumption in observations of some other galaxies. Within molecular clouds are regions with higher density, where much dust and many gas cores reside, called clumps. These clumps are the beginning of star formation if gravitational forces are sufficient to cause the dust and gas to collapse.

Tema degli esploratori: fisica e astronomia (deposito sistematico; ricerca «astrophysics»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Molecular cloud» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud
Wikidata Q272447 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q272447
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_cloud?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1378820683, consultata il 2026-10-07T22:13:45.104Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 2c2bbba9d8d9e5c5e898d39d94b5a307f118eb064c165ffcca70668457905184