Shockwaves from dying stars may sculpt 'cosmic wagon wheel' stellar nurseries, simulations reveal

Some of the galaxy's most spectacular stellar nurseries resemble giant cosmic wagon wheels, with spoke-like structures that scientists say were sculpted by shockwaves from stellar explosions and powerful stellar winds. Using powerful 3D simulations, researchers from Kyushu University and Nagoya University in Japan found that shockwaves racing through giant clouds of gas can carve out the spoke-like filaments often seen surrounding newborn stars . The findings could help explain the origin of so-called hub-filament systems — sprawling star-forming regions where long streams of gas radiate toward a dense central hub, creating a pattern that resembles the spokes of a wheel, according to a statement from Kyushu University. "Stars are born inside molecular clouds — vast, cold clouds of gas that drift through space," Shingo Nozaki, lead author of the study, said in the statement . "But they only form in the coldest and densest parts of those stellar nurseries, where gas can collapse under its own gravity. In some of these star-forming regions, gas is organized into characteristic hub-and-spoke patterns known as Hub-Filament Systems (HFS)." Astronomers have observed these structures throughout the Milky Way , but exactly how they form has remained an open question. …