infant star

English

Noun

infant star (plural infant stars)

1. Synonym of protostar
   • 1983, National Science Foundation Annual Report 1983, page 3:

     Eventually, the energy released by the collapsing material raises the temperature in the core of an infant star enough to ignite self-sustaining nuclear reactions.

   • 2012, John Farndon, What Do We Know about Stars and Galaxies?, page 42:

     protostar: infant star in a gas cloud before it is hot enough for nuclear reactions to start

   • 2022, Charles Liu, The Cosmos Explained:

     As nuclear fusion ignites at the centre of an infant star, the outer regions of the gas cloud that formed it are still falling inwards.

2. (astronomy, astrophysics) A newly formed star; a star that has just begun to sustain a fusion reaction.
   • 1849, M. A. H., “The Dying Child”, in Echoes of Infant Voices, page 86:

     Perhaps thy sight is wandering far Throughout the kindled sky, In tracing every infant star Amid the lights on high,

   • 2006, Gregory L. Matloff, Deep Space Probes: To the Outer Solar System and Beyond, page 15:

     Emitted radiation and a stellar wind flow from the infant star.

   • 2008, Paul Hutchins, The Secret Doorway: Beyond Imagination, page 61:

     In one discovery, Spitzer's infrared eyes have peered into the place where planets are born—the center of a dusty disc surrounding an infant star—and sped the icy ingredients of planets and comets.