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In General

• In what places would you expect stars to form?
• What causes the collapse of an interstellar cloud?
• What factors oppose the collapse of an interstellar cloud?
• Are most stars formed in grups/clusters, or as isolated objects?
• Why are most stars formed in grups or clusters?
• How large are the clouds that collapse to form stars, initially?
• Could a cloud in the Earth's atmosphere collapse and form a star?
• Can star formation be affected by other nearby stars?
• What effect can a shock wave in interstellar space have?

Stages and Related Concepts

• What is a protostar?
• When can a collapsed cloud fragment be called a star?
• What is the minimal temperature for nuclear energy production inside a star?
• How long does it take for a star like the Sun to reach the Main Sequence?
• What halts the collapse of a protostar?

Outcomes

• What is a brown dwarf?
• Why are there no stars with a mass smaller than 0.08 solar masses?
• How massive are the largest stars?
• What kinds of stars are the most common ones?
• Do we expect brown dwarfs to be common?
• After a star is formed, is there any matter left over in the cloud fragment?