The journal Nature reported on Wednesday that astronomers have confirmed a key theory about the formative of massive stars Using powerful telescopes peering into deep space.Images obtained by NASA’s orbital Spitzer Space Telescope and from a ground-based European telescope showed a dusty disc closely encircling a newly-born but huge star.
It is the first direct evidence that very large stars — those with masses at least 10 times that of the Sun — are born in the same way as smaller brethren, from a disk-shaped cloud of dust and gas.A competing theory was that massive stars were formed from smaller stars that merged.
“This is the first time we could image the inner regions of the disc around a massive young star,” said Stefan Kraus of the European Southern Observatory. He also added that “Our observations show that formation works the same for all stars, regardless of mass.”
The astronomers looked at a large star known as IRAS 13481-6124, about 20 times the mass of the Sun, located about 10,000 light years in the constellation of Centaurus.
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFe-6TlpwKe8-yMaTlnJiS8p0aHw