The Origin of Stars and Planetary Systems is a collection of tutorial reviews that critically and systematically discuss the current state of our knowledge of star formation and early stellar evolution, from the genesis of giant molecular clouds to the birth of young stars and their surrounding planetary systems.
The chapters are written at the graduate student level by a group of twenty internationally distinguished scientists. The emphasis is on fundamentals rather than recent research results. The book thus provides a rigorous treatment of the basic empirical and theoretical...

The origin of stars is one of the principle mysteries of nature. During the last two decades advances in technology have enabled more progress to be made in the quest to understand stellar origins than at any other time in history. The study of star formation has developed into one of the most important branches of mod ern astrophysical research. A large body of observational data and a considerable literat ure now exist concerning this topic and a 1arge community of international astronomers and physicists devote their efforts attempting to decipher the secrets of stellar birth. Yet, the...

The origin of stars is one of the principle mysteries of nature. During the last two decades advances in technology have enabled more progress to be made in the quest to understand stellar origins than at any other time in history. The study of star formation has developed into one of the most important branches of mod ern astrophysical research. A large body of observational data and a considerable literat ure now exist concerning this topic and a 1arge community of international astronomers and physicists devote their efforts attempting to decipher the secrets of stellar birth. Yet, the...