It might be my stupidity to think that many laymen terms that most people use to describe some physics phenomena usually have a scientifically accepted term or name? The process of star formation, does it have a specific name generally used in the scientific word? Or is Star Formation used widely by scientists and the rest of us?
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2$\begingroup$ I really think that as an unbrella term for the entire subject discipline; Star Formation is widely used and accepted as the term of choice. $\endgroup$– AutolatryCommented Nov 20, 2014 at 9:28
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2$\begingroup$ Although, we don't say a cloud of gas undergoes star formation to form a star. We say it collapses to form a star $\endgroup$– JimCommented Nov 20, 2014 at 14:47
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1$\begingroup$ stellargenesis isn't it? just a thought, anyway. $\endgroup$– user348566Commented Oct 18, 2022 at 19:06
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3 Answers
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An ADS search for "star formation" turns up about 142,000 articles with "star formation" in the title or abstract. The first article is a 43 page review paper of Star Formation in Galaxies in the Hubble Sequence, written by Robert Kennicutt, Jr, one of the leaders of the field. He never defines anything else to mean star formation and one of the "key words" used for tagging the article is "star formation."
I think it's safe to say, "star formation" is the technical term that everyone uses. Note, though, that as an extension to Jim's comment, star formation is generally used in the context of a region of space that is currently forming stars, not for a single star that is being formed.
answered Nov 20, 2014 at 14:50
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$\begingroup$ What would be a good term for a single star being formed then? $\endgroup$– Hatmix5Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 5:46
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$\begingroup$ @Hatmix5: It is possible to use star formation to discuss a single star forming, it's just generally applied to larger regions of space forming stars. You might be interested in the term protostar, which is the name for the collapsed material before hydrogen fusion (defining characteristic of a star) begins. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 14:40
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$\begingroup$ @Hatmix5 gravitational collapse of a dust cloud is the phenomena that leads to star formation, thus probably that is the right phrase. Although it could be mistaken with the gravitational collapse of a super heavy thing that leads to a black hole. $\endgroup$– KregnachCommented Oct 19, 2022 at 7:13
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I think the words would be asterogenesis or possibly asterosynthesis (c.f. asteroseismology to mean the seismology of stars).
These are never used in the scientific literature as far as my Google searches and experience go (and I work in the field).
