The first process is physical. The gas molecules are compresses together, which cause the clouds to heat up.
The second process is chemical. The energy blast makes some of the hydrogen and oxygen molecules bond together and form water vapor. That water provides the coolant to help the condensing clouds keep condensing to become new stars.
Astronomers have believed for decades that planets accumulate like tumbling snowballs from a disc of gas and dust that remains after a star is formed....Martin Harwit, astrophysicist and the research team leader from Cornell Univeristy, says,the find demonstrates for the first time the vital role that water plays in star formation and may also provide an important clue about the source of water in the solar system. Harwit's findings suggest that, that disc, may also contain frozen molecules of ice, a primary component of comets.
He says, "It's quite possible that the oceans of Earth were formed by comets that plunged into the planet, leaving behind their water."
"The fact that we now know it's so easy to form," Werner comments, "Tells us it's probably easy for newly forming planets to form it as well."...Harwit says the key to spoting where the water in solar systems comes from is in looking into a variety of stages of star formation....."If water is present in each, then chances are good that the oceans of Earth are older than even the planet that now contains them." This story was written by Elizabeth Manning for United Press International which was later republished by ABCNEWS.COM.....Permission was graciously granted by UPI to reprint these quotes here.
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