| 3 | 3 | Various properties of the “Bonnor-Ebert” (BE) sphere, a hydrostatic sphere in pressure equilibrium with its ambient environment, make it a good candidate for numerical modeling of protostellar collapse. First, as a candidate star forming structure is envisaged as gravitationally bound and unstable, it is easy to imagine a protostar evolving from an initially hydrostatic configuration. Indeed, spherical clumps have been observed in or near hydrostatic equilibrium, such as the Bok Globule, B68 (Myers). Second, the stability criterion against gravitational collapse has been worked out analytically. Third, pushing the sphere out of the stability regime with various physical perturbations illuminate collapse characteristics. Such features of the collapse may help advance single star formation theory as well as provide clues to observational astronomers in identifying potential star forming sites. |
