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Paper: The early evolution of stars
Volume: 73, Airborne Astronomy Symposium on the Galactic Ecosystem: From Gas to Stars to Dust
Page: 205
Authors: Strom, Stephen E.
Abstract: This review outlines the observational properties of young stellar objects as they evolve from their birth within dense rotating molecular cores to fully-formed pre-main sequence stars. Current work suggests that most of the mass which ultimately comprises a fully-formed star is transferred from a flattened infalling envelope (of size approximately several thousand AU) through a circumstellar accretion disk to the stellar surface. We summarize current estimates for the duration of the envelope infall and disk accretion phases and discuss the implication of these timescales for the formation of stars of different mass and of planetary systems.
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