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Jeans Instability: Molecular Cloud Collapse

N-body simulation of a self-gravitating gas cloud: watch it collapse or disperse depending on whether its mass exceeds the Jeans mass, with live virial ratio, Jeans mass and density readouts.

Space & Astronomy3DAdvanced60 FPS

A real N-body simulation of a self-gravitating gas cloud: roughly 400 mutually-attracting particles model a patch of interstellar gas, and whether the cloud collapses into a protostellar core or disperses into the void is governed by the same competition between gravity and thermal pressure that decides star formation in real molecular clouds — the Jeans instability. Adjust the cloud's mass and temperature live and watch the virial ratio and Jeans-mass comparison track the cloud's actual dynamical fate, or switch off self-gravity to see pure pressure-driven dispersal.

⚙ Under the hood

N-body simulation of a self-gravitating gas cloud that collapses or disperses depending on whether its mass exceeds the Jeans mass, with live virial ratio, Jeans mass and density readouts.

astrophysicsstar formationgravityn-bodymolecular cloudjeans instability

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install