Engineering topics

Boss, Alan P.

Publications and source records attributed to Boss, Alan P..

21 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS1988

Protostellar collapse, dust grains and solar system formation

Attempts to understand the origin of the solar system come from two perspectives. The first is that of the insider looking out; the system components beyond the earth are examined in detail, their properties categorized, and explanations are sought that make sense of the patterns and relations among them. The primitive meteorites are prime objects of study from this perspective. The other perspective is that of the outsider looking in, considering other stars that are now in their formative stages and trying to understand the physical processes that govern all such events, under the assumption that the solar system is not unique. A compelling theory of the origin of the solar system must, of course, merge the fruits of both perspectives.

Cassen, Patrick↗

NASA NTRS1987

Protostellar formation in rotating interstellar clouds. VI - Nonuniform initial conditions

The collapse and fragmentation of rotating protostellar clouds is explored, starting from nonuniform density and nonuniform rotation initial conditions. Whether binary fragmentation occurs during the first dynamic collapse phase depends strongly on the initial density profile. Exponential clouds are only somewhat more resistant to fragmentation than uniform-density clouds, but power-law clouds do not undergo fragmentation for likely values of a relevant parameter. Because binary fragments start from profiles intermediate between uniform density and exponential clouds, minimum protostellar mass for population I stars should be increased to approximately 0.02 solar mass. The axisymmetric Terey et al. (1984) model should be stable with respect to nonaxisymmetric perturbations. Considering the observed binary frequency, collapse from power-law initial conditions appears to be less common than collapse from more uniform initial conditions.

Boss, Alan P.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Bipolar flows, molecular gas disks, and the collapse and accretion of rotating interstellar clouds

Rigorous numerical models of the collapse and accretion of rotating, axisymmetric, isothermal interstellar clouds are studied. The results show that molecular gas disks and evacuated bipolar cavities both appear to be natural consequences of the collapse of rotating interstellar clouds. Dynamically significant magnetic fields may not be necessary for explaining either phenomenon. The models strongly support theoretical models of the type where an isotropic wind from a pre-main sequence star is extrinsically collimated by a rotationally derived molecular gas cloud. The models imply that collimation should be strongest on small scales where rotational effects are most important, i.e., in the dense region of the molecular gas disk.

Boss, Alan P.↗