We must continue our studies in this area to understand how the initially tiny protostar grows, layer by layer, to eventually form a massive star.
But finding nascent massive stars has proven difficult.
These are collections of hundreds of bright, massive stars, all of which were born at the same time.
There are two main theories concerning massive star formation, accretion and merger.
In fact, the cosmic jellyfish is seen to be part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded.
In fact, the helmet is actually more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding molecular cloud.
More-recent work indicated massive stars could form by accretion after all, but researchers had not actually observed it.
The nebula is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star.
Astronomers have found a disk of dust around a huge, massive star in its early stages of growth, indicating that stars big and small form by the same mechanism.
But as very massive stars live fast and die young, their explosive demises eject material, likely forming the loops.
The new study suggests that starformation in Cepheus B is mainly triggered by radiation from onebright, massive star (HD 217086) outside the molecular cloud.
Known as OB runaways, these massive stars tear through space at surprisingly high speed-sometimes hundreds of kilometers per second.
Its star is a red giant - a massive star near the end of its life. It is too dim to see in the night sky from Earth without a telescope.
The neutron star was once a massive star itself, but has reached the end of its life and collapsed into a tiny stellar remnant just 15 km across.
In this case, the crucial factor is not the presence of water; it is the proximity of violent, massive stars.
The dust is likely formed as the swollen atmosphere of the supergiant sheds material into space, a final phase in the evolution of a massive star.
The smiley-shaped bow shocks curve away from the stellar winds of the central massive stars.
In a massive star's death throes, it can blast most of its outer material into space.
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