Star Formation

By Jon A. Covey, B.A, MT(ASCP)
Edited by Anita K. Millen, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.

On a 1993 KKLA broadcast, Dr. Hugh Ross, a Ph.D. graduate of the University of Toronto and Christian astrophysicist who believes in a 15-20 billion-year-old, big-bang initiated universe, debated Dr. Duane Gish, a Christian biochemist who believes in a specially-created, young universe. When I called in with an objection to his assertions concerning star formation, Dr. Ross referred me to a book by Cox and Giuli, a massive, two-volume work on astrophysics published in 1968, implying that the information therein would refute my objections. After reading the relevant portions of their book, I found that they did not support his statements at all and did support my objections. In fact, you will see below, they strongly deny Ross' claims. Stars cannot form naturally. They must be created directly by God.

Most astronomers say that stars form from gravitationally contracting nebular gases despite the fact that star formation has never been observed. Isn't observation a requirement of the scientific method? The assertions of modern cosmology (study of the universe) are often a matter of inferences and opinion rather than fact. Ross recently claimed on another radio program that we have now directly observed star births, referring to observations of infrared emanations coming from a certain gas cloud as evidence of star formation. There are opaque clouds in space with infrared emanations coming from them, but this in no way confirms that stars are forming from the nebular material. The infrared emanations could be due to many things, e.g. a red, cool, super giant star.{1} His claim is very questionable. Even if stars could form according to current theory, we wouldn't be able to observe it because, as Bart Bok wrote,

"When the initially cool clouds of dust and gas collapse, they heat up. They should first become visible as murky clouds with a star deep inside, and these may be observable only in the infrared....a young star would be embedded in a large envelope of dust and gas. Such a star would have a truly murky atmosphere!"{2}

What actually happens behind that murk is anyone's guess. Alan Boss spoke in these terms:

"What are the early stages in the formation of a star? What determines whether a cloud of star-forming matter will evolve into one, two or several stars? Because clouds of gas, dust and debris largely obscure all but the initial and final stages of the birth of a star, these questions have so far not been answered by direct observation....it has been impossible to date to view the cloud as it collapses through this range of densities. Consequently stars cannot be observed as they form." [my emphasis]{3}

Jeans' Length

JL = (GM2)/(2nRT)

JL = 9.467 x 1015m = Light year

G = 6.67 x 10-11N-m2/kg2

R = 8.314 J/mol·K

M = 1030kg

n = 0.5 x 1033moles H2 as found in Giant Molecular Clouds.

For a thorough mathematical treatment of the formation of protostars from interstellar molecular clouds as to related Jeans' Length see An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie, pp. 447-458, (1996). Jeans' Length is the minimum radius for the spontaneous collapse of an interstellar cloud of dust and gas of a specific mass and temperature. The nebular mass, density, and radius are inter-related and the above formula shows that unless critical conditions are met, stars cannot form by collapse of interstellar clouds.

Astronomy professor, Donald DeYoung, said that when typical values of interstellar cloud mass M and temperature T are inserted in the formula, Jeans' Length is found to be 50-100 times smaller than the average nebular size. He says,

"The conclusion is that stars will not form spontaneously in space since the dominant outward gas force, Fp = (3nRT)/r, will not allow collapse. Instead gas clouds dissipate outward. Furthermore, this simple force comparison ignores the dispersive effects of nebular magnetism, rotation, nonsphericity and turbulence," from "The Origin of the Universe," in Design and Origins in Astronomy, 1983, p. 17.

Of course, the estimated time for a gas cloud to contract to the protostar stage, between one million and ten million years, is too long for us to observe, putting star formation outside the scope of the scientific method.{4} The problems associated with the idea that stars can form from the gravitational infalling of a massive volume of nebular gas are great. Star formation by this route is physically impossible. The fairly simple formula for Jeans' Length (Sir James Jeans) shows what is necessary for stellar formation. A gas cloud must be within a critical radius in order to collapse by gravity (Jeans' Length). Jeans' Length (JL) is equal to the Gravitational constant (G) times the mass (M) of the cloud squared, divided by two times the number of moles of gas, times the Gas Constant (R), times the Temperature (T) in kelvins (see side bar).{5} There are other ways to calculate the physical parameters for star formation, but similar problems develop. Leo Blitz says that about 99 percent of the mass of a Giant Molecular Cloud (where stars are thought to form) is molecular hydrogen, H2.{6} I used this fact to calculate the minimum number of moles (n) of hydrogen that would have formed the core of the sun and solved for T. The temperature that the sun's equivalent cloud mass would have to be in order for it to contract under the force of gravity, considering the mass of the Sun, expanding its radius to the distance of one light year, and plugging in the values for the constants. The result was 1.69o K (- 456.68oF. Absolute Zero, 0oK = - 459.67 oF), one degree less than the temperature of the 2.726o K cosmic background radiation, according to the latest COBE satellite measurements.{7} The universe is too hot for star formation!

Chapter 26, "Survey of Stellar Evolution," of Cox and Giuli's work was the only chapter on star formation. What they had to say confirms what I said in my original challenge to Dr. Ross.{8} On page 947, they make their first direct comment on star formation:

"The very earliest stages in the star formation process must consist of the condensation of a 'protostar' from the interstellar medium. These stages constitute one of the most poorly understood areas in the whole field of stellar evolution, and we shall simply assume that a protostar has somehow formed." [my emphasis]

Rather than explain how a star could form, Cox and Giuli frankly admitted they didn't know, yet their book served as the sum total of Dr. Ross' refutation to me. They also said that from the time they began writing their chapter on stellar formation, which was in 1966, until the time of publication in 1968, over 1000 papers on star formation had been published, yet not one of them showed any signs of overcoming the major difficulties. I am still surveying recent literature on star formation, and they have no better idea now than then. On page 958, they explain one of the biggest problems:

"One of the major difficulties in the condensation problem is that a cloud of gas and dust of stellar mass with density rho and temperature T typical of gas clouds found in the Galaxy (say rho ~ 10-22 gm/cm3 and T ~ 100oK in HI (neutral hydrogen) regions) would have too weak a gravitational field to contract under its own gravity,"

which is what Jeans' Length is all about. How can a gas cloud contract in space when the physics disallows it? About ten years after Cox and Giuli wrote their masterpiece, Nobel prize winner, Hannes Alfven, in a neatly written, highly mathematical book, wrote the following:

"There is a general belief that stars are forming by gravitational collapse; in spite of vigorous efforts no one has yet found any observational indication of confirmation. Thus the 'generally accepted' theory of stellar formation may be one of a hundred unsupported dogmas which constitute a large part of present-day astrophysics."{9}

Cox and Giuli explain another problem. The spin of a cloud (its angular momentum) would increase as the gas contracted from several light years radius down to the size of a star. The spin would increase to fantastic speeds the more the cloud collapsed. You've probably watched a skater begin spinning and speed up as arms and legs are drawn into the body, this is what would happen to a gas cloud as it contracted. They say, p. 959,

"This rotational velocity would be increased to some 6 x 105km/sec (>c! ) by the time the cloud had shrunk to stellar dimensions, if angular momentum were conserved."

The exclamatory phrase ">c"! means "greater than the speed of light!" which is slightly less than 3 x 105km/sec. In other words, they are telling us that the notion of star formation by the gravitational collapse of a gas cloud is unrealistic. The sun is not rotating at twice the speed of light! So where did all the angular momentum go if the sun truly formed by gravitational contraction? They suggest that some of it was transferred to Jupiter and Saturn, which possess 98% of the total angular momentum of the solar system, still far, far less than the angular momentum that would have been generated during the formation of the sun. Clearly, Cox and Giuli had nothing to say that would lend credence to the idea that stars form by gravitational collapse of interstellar gas and dust. Finally, they say, "It is obvious that real stars somehow manage to come into being; hopefully, we shall someday understand in more detail how they do so."

Think about this. They spend several pages almost apologizing for not having the slightest idea how or why stars form from interstellar gas clouds with densities so slight that they are more complete vacuums than any vacuum ever created by man. The vacuums in interstellar gas clouds are so complete that there is less than one atom per cubic centimeter. {10} To illustrate this, if an atom were the size of a basketball, the next closest atom, on this scale, would be about 160,000 miles away. The laws of physics show that it is impossible for stars to form by gravitational collapse of interstellar gases and dust. Stars came into being because God created them along with everything else.

Astronomers like Bok, Cameron, and Spitzer recognized that stars are not going to form by simple gravitational contraction, but that they required some sort of outside influence, like shock waves from the explosion of a star. Such an explosion would push the interstellar gas cloud to greater density and satisfy the requirements described by Sir James Jeans and others. Cox and Giuli understood the problems, but not wishing to credit God, or even acknowledge him as a possible answer to the problems, they simply said that it had to happen somehow, because the stars are here.

One of our readers, Dave Matson, a crusading critic of creationists, criticized this article in private. One can find his flawed criticisms of many creationists on the Internet. What Matson said concerning this article is that if the radius of the hypothetical gas cloud consisting of our sun's mass were expanded five-fold, the volume and mass would increse 125-fold, and the temperature component would rise 10 to 20 kelvins, thereby making the gravitational collapse of the sun's gas cloud certain since the temperature of the interstellar medium would then be colder than the cloud. However, the mistake Matson made was to think that the mass of the hypothetical gas cloud would increase 125-fold because the volume would increase 125-fold. However, increasing the radius of the sun's initial mass would only decrease the density of the sun's gas cloud. He was too intent in his mission to destroy the argument, blinded by his evolutionary prejudice, to see the mistake he made.

References

1. Abell, George O., Realm of the Universe, 3rd ed., Saunders, 1984, p. 289

2. Bok, Bart J., "The Birth of Stars," Scientific American, Aug. 1972, pp.54, 59

3. Boss, Alan P., "Collapse and Formation of Stars," Scientific American, Jan 1985, p. 40

4. op cit, Bok, p. 54

5. DeYoung, Donald B. and John C. Whitcomb, "The Origin of the Universe," Design and Origins in Astronomy, George Mulfinger editor, Creation Research Society, 1983. p. 17

6. Blitz, Leo, "Giant Molecular-Cloud Complexes in the Galaxy," Scientific American, Apr. 1982, p. 86

7. Cown, Ron, "COBE: A Match Made in Heaven," Science News, 143 (1993), p. 43.

8. Cox, J.P., and R.T. Giuli, Principles of Stellar Structure: Applications to Stars, 1968.

9. Alfven, Hannes, and Gustaf Arrhenius, Evolution of the Solar System, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., 1976, p. 480.

10. Struve, Otto, "Interstellar Matter," Sky and Telescope, Jan 1956
Spitzer, Lyman, Jr., Searching Between the Stars, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1982, p. 33