A large hot molecular cloud around a very young star was discovered by ALMA. This hot cloud is about ten times larger than those found around typical solar-mass baby stars, which indicates that the star formation process has more diversity than ever thought. This result was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters on 20 September 2013.
Stars are formed in very cold (-260 degrees Celsius) gas and dust clouds. Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are dense regions of such clouds, and thought that in which clusters of stars are formed. Since most of stars are born as members of star clusters, investigating IRDCs has a crucial role in a comprehensive understanding of the star formation process.