What causes an interstellar cloud to collapse?

Summary: Stars form in cold, dense regions of space called molecular clouds. When the force of gravity pulling in on the cloud is greater than the strength of internal pressure pushing out, the cloud collapses into a protostar.Click to see full answer. Similarly one may ask, what causes fragmentation in a collapsing interstellar cloud?As the cloud fragment shrinks due to gravity, it spins faster. Collapse occurs preferentially along path of least rotation. The cloud fragment collapses into a central core surrounded by a disk of material. The disk around the central core will fragment further, producing rings of material.One may also ask, what are the criteria for a collapsing cloud to become a protostar? Protostar. Stars begin to form from clouds of gas in space. The cold temperatures and high densities (compared to elsewhere in space, but would be considered a vacuum on Earth) of these clouds allow gravity to overcome thermal pressure and start the gravitational collapse that will form a star. Similarly, you may ask, what happens when an interstellar cloud collapses? Cloud collapse. An interstellar cloud of gas will remain in hydrostatic equilibrium as long as the kinetic energy of the gas pressure is in balance with the potential energy of the internal gravitational force. The mass above which a cloud will undergo such collapse is called the Jeans mass.What happens to fragments of interstellar clouds when gravity causes them to contract?The clouds are composed of gas and dust (tiny solid particles of matter). If the cloud is dense enough its own gravity will cause it to contract. As the contraction continues density increases, which causes gravity to increase, which leads to more contraction, which heats up the protostar to greater temperatures.