Thermal Energy

• Thermal energy inhibits star formation. Pressure= bolsheivks contant X temperature X density.

• When contracts, stars will either heat up or cool down.

• When you push down on a bicycle pump, you’re adding the energy of the piston to the energy of the atoms that are in the cylinder. At first atoms bounce off, and then atoms hit other atoms, which transfers some of the energy from the piston to the other atoms.

• Energy is then thermalized, and the atoms heat up. Temperature, density, and pressure goes up. No centripetal force along the axis of rotation, disks around the stars.

• Turbulence also resists star formation, occurs in large clouds of gas which can move around in different directions, exert pressure and resist gravity. Macroscopic large scale collections of atoms. Some large moving clouds try to break out, and not expand. Resists star formation.

• Magnetic field also inhibits star formation. Exerts a force on moving objects, promotes formation of disks b/c inhibits gas coming in perpendicular. Can also have random field lines. Magnetic fields and rotation encourage of a disk, inhibiting contraction of a cloud perpendicular to its axis.

What encourages star formation?

• Supernova explosions produce shock waves which cause gas to bunch together, so gravity becomes stronger and pushes them in.

• Cooling of the gas, so when it becomes dense, then the atoms of the gas collide with eachother more often, knock electrons into higher orbits, which decay, which produces radiation

• Radiation blows away a lot of the material that surrounds the star, so at that stage they’re