The Formation of Massive Stars by Collision and Their Fate

Abstract

Prior to the early part of the last decade, there were two rival theories for the formation of massive stars. In one model massive stars were produced by the merger of lower mass protostars within dense clusters of nascent stars. In the second model massive stars formed in exactly the same way as their lower mass brethren – through steady accretion of matter onto a dense protostellar core through an accretion disc. It was presumed that the former was the more likely model, as radiation pressure from the developing star would act to drive material away from it. In Chap. 2 we discussed the identification of massive protostars surrounded by thick, massive accretion discs. These observations have made a very solid case for the second accretion model.