These objects fragment as they collapse thanks to Jeans instability; when those remnants attain sufficiently high density that thermal energy does not immediately radiate away, they become protostars.
The largest concentration of these objects in the Milky Way forms a ring around the galactic center at a distance of 120 parsecs. These objects sometimes exhibit an hourglass magnetic field morphology, especially in their densest portions. The interior structures of these objects can be mapped by tracing the NH3 and CO concentration around dense cores and cores respectively. The aforementioned ring of these objects includes one known as Sagittarius B2, which provided the first known observational signatures for more than half of all interstellar (*) compounds. These objects fragment as they collapse thanks to Jeans instability; when those remnants attain sufficiently high density that thermal energy does not immediately radiate away, they become protostars. For 10 points, name these masses largely comprised of diatomic neutral hydrogen where stars are formed.
The largest concentration of these objects in the Milky Way forms a ring around the galactic center at a distance of 120 parsecs.
molecular clouds (accept "giant molecular clouds;" prompt on "inter-stellar clouds," "star-forming regions," "stellar nurseries," or "nebulae")