3222: Star Formation - Revision history

82.132.237.127: Undo revision 408889 by GSLikesCats307 (talk) Not true. No awareness shown of 'anyone' else, or indication of third-parties involved.

2026-03-26T12:33:48Z

Undo revision 408889 by GSLikesCats307 (talk) Not true. No awareness shown of 'anyone' else, or indication of third-parties involved.

GSLikesCats307 at 08:46, 26 March 2026

2026-03-26T08:46:24Z

2A02:21B4:9E5B:A600:794F:9A5C:D113:A080: /* Explanation */

2026-03-24T19:20:05Z

‎Explanation

Galadhremmin: /* Explanation */ substitute "anomalous" for "anomalymous"

2026-03-24T06:38:03Z

‎Explanation: substitute "anomalous" for "anomalymous"

Chronotix: /* Transcript */

2026-03-23T12:51:35Z

‎Transcript

82.132.239.91: /* Explanation */

2026-03-23T11:47:16Z

‎Explanation

136.226.74.254: /* Transcript */

2026-03-23T10:44:16Z

‎Transcript

136.226.74.254: /* Transcript */ typo

2026-03-23T10:42:51Z

‎Transcript: typo

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

2026-03-23T09:28:05Z

‎Explanation

81.179.199.253: /* Explanation */ Presume typo. This makes more sense in context.

2026-03-23T00:25:12Z

‎Explanation: Presume typo. This makes more sense in context.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.
-The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see. Strangly enough, the narrator, upon seeing the clouds ionize, seems to act as if another diety also present caused the ionization. This could be true (Maybe the other diety is Time), or it could just be an odd reaction to the ionization, having never seen something like it before.
+The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
 This comic depicts a simplified model of how structure forms in the universe, then pushes it to an absurd extreme. In cosmology, small density variations in the early universe grow over time: regions with slightly higher density attract more matter via {{w|gravity}}, eventually forming {{w|gas cloud}}s, stars, and galaxies. Pressure, driven by temperature, resists collapse, so the evolution of a cloud depends on the balance between gravitational attraction and internal pressure; this is often described by the {{w|Jeans instability}} criterion.
@@ Line 18: / Line 16: @@
 The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.
-The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.
+The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see. Strangly enough, the narrator, upon seeing the clouds ionize, seems to act as if another diety also present caused the ionization. This could be true (Maybe the other diety is Time), or it could just be an odd reaction to the ionization, having never seen something like it before.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.
-The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as something ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.
+The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the first panel, the on-screen narrator (with a passing resemblance to the [[:Category:Time-Traveling Sphere|time-travelling sphere]] and other speaking dots used in xkcd), an apparent creator of the universe, describes pressure waves moving through gas and causing it to clump. In the second, the clouds begin to collapse under gravity as more gas falls in. The third panel sees the outcome: as collapse proceeds, the gas heats up (via compression and radiation processes), increasing pressure and eventually sparking fusion. The comic depicts the formation of stars, something that we know this universe has done,{{cn}} with the implication that this was a totally unforeseen outcome for the {{w|Demiurge|manipulator}} or {{w|Creator deity|creator}} of this universe.
-The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalymous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.
+The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.
 The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as something ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 :Dot: I messed up. I messed up '''''bad.'''''
-:[The dot comments on the final result. There is now a shining star in place of the dense field of clouds,  radiating strongly in all directions, blowing the few remaining smaller clouds around it, nine in total, away from it.]
+:[The dot comments on the final result. There is now a shining star in place of the dense field of clouds,  radiating strongly in all directions, blowing the few remaining smaller clouds around it, eight in total, away from it.]
 :Dot: <big>'''''Noooooooo!!!'''''</big>
 :Dot: My beautiful clouds!

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 :Dot: It's not stopping!
 :Dot: The heat is rising but the collapse is only accelerating!
-:Dot: I messed up bad. I messed up '''''bad.'''''
+:Dot: I messed up. I messed up '''''bad.'''''
 :[The dot comments on the final result. There is now a shining star in place of the dense field of clouds,  radiating strongly in all directions, blowing the few remaining smaller clouds around it, nine in total, away from it.]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 :Dot: They clump together and then pressure pushes them apart.
-:[In a fame-less panel the dot comments on the development as the largest cloud from seems to be gathering several other smaller clouds together. The other three larger clouds are still there, but there now seems to be some larger clouds stuck together in the upper right part, with more than ten smaller cloud either on top of these or moving in from all angles.]
+:[In a frame-less panel the dot comments on the development as the largest cloud from seems to be gathering several other smaller clouds together. The other three larger clouds are still there, but there now seems to be some larger clouds stuck together in the upper right part, with more than ten smaller cloud either on top of these or moving in from all angles.]
 :Dot: Oh weird, that big clump of clouds is staying together.
 :Dot: Their gravity is overcoming the pressure and more gas is falling in.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the first panel, the on-screen narrator (with a passing resemblance to the [[:Category:Time-Traveling Sphere|time-travelling sphere]] and other speaking dots used in xkcd), an apparent creator of the universe, describes pressure waves moving through gas and causing it to clump. In the second, the clouds begin to collapse under gravity as more gas falls in. The third panel sees the outcome: as collapse proceeds, the gas heats up (via compression and radiation processes), increasing pressure and eventually sparking fusion. The comic depicts the formation of stars, something that we know this universe has done,{{cn}} with the implication that this was a totally unforeseen outcome for the {{w|Demiurge|manipulator}} or {{w|Creator deity|creator}} of this universe.
-The final panel humorously frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds," as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds.
+The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds," as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful.
 The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as something ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of {{w|star formation}} within and around a {{w|nebula}} again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.