Quote:
Originally Posted by George
Yes, I have just begun reading about this sort of thing in a book: "The Birth of Stars and Planets" , Baily & Reipurth (2006). It is believed that the intermediate mass stars are too hot for much of a convective zone so it, apparently, does not have disk brakes no matter how hard it stomps on the pedal.  [The convective zone is believed to be the key to strong magnetic fields that cause disk interaction and braking.] |
That doesn't seem 100% right. Isn't the Sun an intermediate mass star? it appears to have had some mechanism for losing its angular momentum. The Sun has a convective zone, but it is not classed as "fully convective". Maybe Baily & Reipurth are referring to stars a little more massive than the Sun. Stars earlier than F7 tend to be rapid rotators. I think F6 corresponds to about 1.2 M
sun, but that's just a guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by George
I'd love to get other recommendations for good reads on star birth, especially more on the Class 0 and Class 1 protostars.
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AFAIK the process is not well understood.
In reply to your earlier question I should have mentioned
gyrochronology, the art of dating stars by their rotation. For a given color the rotation rate of a singleton star is a good guide to its age. For example
Improved Age Estimation for Solar-Type Dwarfs Using Activity-Rotation Diagnostics gives an account of the issues and methods used in dating stars.