a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that gradually collapses, forming a hot dense core, and evolves into a star once nuclear fusion can occur in the core
protostar in American English
(ˈproʊtoʊˌstɑr)
noun
in some cosmological theories, any of the millions of swirling clouds of dust and hydrogen gas that form within a protogalaxy and eventually evolve into thermonuclear stars
Examples of 'protostar' in a sentence
protostar
I can get a second view of a protostar in process of collapse!
Niven, Larry & Pournelle, Jerry THE MOAT AROUND MURCHESON'S EYE (1993)