Jeans instability

E290120

Jeans instability is a gravitational phenomenon in astrophysics where regions within a gas cloud become unstable and collapse under their own gravity, leading to the formation of structures like stars and galaxies.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Jeans instability canonical 3

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf astrophysical instability
gravitational instability
appliesTo interstellar medium
molecular clouds
self-gravitating gas clouds
assumes infinite homogeneous medium
linear perturbation theory
small perturbations
cause gravitational collapse
characterizedBy Jeans length
Jeans mass
criterion perturbation mass greater than Jeans mass
perturbation size greater than Jeans length
dependsOn gas density
gas temperature
mass of the perturbation
size of the perturbation
sound speed in the gas
field astrophysics
cosmology
governingEquations Euler equations
surface form: Euler equation

Poisson equation for gravity
continuity equation
fluid equations
historicalPeriod early 20th century
influencedBy magnetic fields
rotation of the gas cloud
turbulence
namedAfter James Jeans
namedEntity true
occursIn early universe density fluctuations
star-forming regions
occursWhen self-gravity exceeds pressure support
opposedBy pressure gradients
relatedTo Jeans swindle
cosmological perturbation theory
gravitational collapse
structure formation in the universe
resultsIn formation of galaxies
formation of stellar clusters
fragmentation of gas clouds
star formation
stabilizedBy gas pressure
sound waves
thermal motions
timescale free-fall time
usedFor estimating minimum mass for star formation
modeling fragmentation of molecular clouds
understanding galaxy formation

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Jeans mass relatedTo Jeans instability
James Jeans knownFor Jeans instability
virial theorem relatedTo Jeans instability