Abstract
Observations of CO emission from the prototypical spiral galaxy M51 reveal density wave streaming motions in molecular gas coincident with the dust lanes. This is strong evidence that spiral density waves assemble pre-existing molecular clouds into giant associations and trigger the collapse of suitably primed clouds, leading to the formation of stars.
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Vogel, S., Kulkarni, S. & Scoville, N. Star formation in giant molecular associations synchronized by a spiral density wave. Nature 334, 402–406 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334402a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334402a0
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