What physical law plays a crucial role in the protostar disk formation?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

In the context of protostar disk formation, several physical principles come into play as the collapsing gas cloud sheds energy and reorganizes itself into a rotating structure.

Because the gas cloud is collapsing under gravity, any small initial rotation will be amplified as the material contracts, since angular momentum must be conserved unless external torques act on the system. This leads to the development of a rotating disk: as material moves inward, its rotational speed increases to conserve angular momentum, causing it to spread into a disk rather than a simple spherical infall.

Conservation of angular momentum explains why a protostellar disk forms at all: without losing angular momentum, the infalling gas cannot shed enough angular momentum to fall directly onto the protostar, so it settles into an orbiting disk where viscous processes can transport angular momentum outward and mass inward.

If we consider other forces or principles, gravity remains the dominant driving force pulling material inward, but angular momentum conservation determines the geometry and rotational dynamics, setting up the disk structure. Energy conservation and thermodynamics matter for heating, cooling, and phase changes within the disk, yet they do not by themselves explain the initial tendency to form a disk from a collapsing cloud.

Given that the question highlights a single law crucial to disk formation, the key concept is that angular momentum must be conserved, which shapes how material spins up and organizes into a rotating protostellar disk.

Note: since the answer options were not provided in the data, this analysis focuses on why the stated correct answer—conservation of angular momentum—plays a central role in protostellar disk formation, and clarifies the role of related physical principles for better conceptual understanding.

COS SPR 25 class 2 Mar 11 Ch16: Star Birth

What physical law plays a crucial role in the protostar disk formation?

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