Jeans mass
E59371
The Jeans mass is the critical mass above which a cloud of gas becomes gravitationally unstable and begins to collapse, playing a key role in the formation of stars and galaxies.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Jeans mass canonical | 4 |
| Jeans length | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T476677 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Jeans mass Context triple: [Chandrasekhar limit, relatedConcept, Jeans mass]
-
A.
Mass
Mass is a large-scale theatrical work by Leonard Bernstein that blends elements of classical music, musical theater, and religious liturgy to explore themes of faith and doubt.
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B.
Sasson Jeans
Sasson Jeans was a popular American denim and sportswear brand that gained prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s for its fashion-forward jeans and memorable advertising campaigns.
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C.
Chandrasekhar limit
The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before collapsing under its own gravity, playing a crucial role in determining its ultimate fate as a neutron star or black hole.
-
D.
Levi
Levi is the surname of Primo Levi, the renowned Italian Jewish chemist and writer best known for his memoirs about surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp.
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E.
Pijin
Pijin is an English-based creole language widely used as a lingua franca in the Solomon Islands.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Jeans mass Target entity description: The Jeans mass is the critical mass above which a cloud of gas becomes gravitationally unstable and begins to collapse, playing a key role in the formation of stars and galaxies.
-
A.
Mass
Mass is a large-scale theatrical work by Leonard Bernstein that blends elements of classical music, musical theater, and religious liturgy to explore themes of faith and doubt.
-
B.
Sasson Jeans
Sasson Jeans was a popular American denim and sportswear brand that gained prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s for its fashion-forward jeans and memorable advertising campaigns.
-
C.
Chandrasekhar limit
The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before collapsing under its own gravity, playing a crucial role in determining its ultimate fate as a neutron star or black hole.
-
D.
Levi
Levi is the surname of Primo Levi, the renowned Italian Jewish chemist and writer best known for his memoirs about surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp.
-
E.
Pijin
Pijin is an English-based creole language widely used as a lingua franca in the Solomon Islands.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
astrophysical concept
ⓘ
gravitational instability criterion ⓘ physical quantity ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
interstellar molecular clouds
ⓘ
primordial gas in the early universe ⓘ protogalactic gas clouds ⓘ |
| approximateFormula |
M_J ∝ T^{3/2} ρ^{-1/2}
ⓘ
M_J ≈ (5 k_B T / G μ m_H)^{3/2} (3 / 4πρ)^{1/2} ⓘ |
| assumes |
Newtonian celestial mechanics
ⓘ
surface form:
Newtonian gravity
isothermal gas ⓘ small perturbations in an infinite medium ⓘ uniform density ⓘ |
| balances | thermal pressure against gravitational attraction at the stability threshold ⓘ |
| characterizes | onset of gravitational instability in a self-gravitating gas ⓘ |
| condition |
cloud remains stable when mass is below Jeans mass
ⓘ
collapse occurs when cloud mass exceeds Jeans mass ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | Bonnor–Ebert mass ⓘ |
| dependsOn |
gas density
ⓘ
gas temperature ⓘ mean molecular weight of the gas ⓘ sound speed in the gas ⓘ |
| describes | critical mass for gravitational collapse of a gas cloud ⓘ |
| dimension | mass ⓘ |
| directlyProportionalTo | 3/2 power of gas temperature ⓘ |
| field |
astrophysics
ⓘ
cosmology ⓘ star formation theory ⓘ |
| historicalContext | introduced in early 20th century gravitational instability analyses ⓘ |
| influences |
fragmentation scale of collapsing clouds
ⓘ
typical mass scale of forming stars ⓘ |
| inverselyProportionalTo | square root of gas density ⓘ |
| namedAfter | James Jeans ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Jeans instability
ⓘ
Jeans mass self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Jeans length
free-fall time ⓘ self-gravity of gas clouds ⓘ thermal pressure support ⓘ virial theorem ⓘ |
| roleIn |
formation of galaxies
ⓘ
formation of stars ⓘ formation of stellar clusters ⓘ |
| symbol | M_J ⓘ |
| usedIn |
initial mass function studies
ⓘ
models of molecular cloud fragmentation ⓘ numerical simulations of star formation ⓘ structure formation in the early universe ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Jeans mass Description of subject: The Jeans mass is the critical mass above which a cloud of gas becomes gravitationally unstable and begins to collapse, playing a key role in the formation of stars and galaxies.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Jeans length