Astronomers detect ambipolar diffusion in prestellar core L1544

Researchers from Kyushu University and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics used IRAM radio observations to measure a velocity difference between ions and neutral molecules in the prestellar core L1544 in the Taurus Molecular Complex. The roughly 0.05 km/s ion-neutral drift confirms ambipolar diffusion, the process that weakens the magnetic field and enables gravitational collapse into a protostar.

• Ion-neutral velocity difference of about 0.05 km/s measured in L1544
• The core lies 140 parsecs away in the Taurus Molecular Complex
• Temperatures inside the core range from 10 to 30 kelvins
• Ambipolar diffusion in a prestellar core observed for the first time