Astronomers map a magnetic 'skeleton' funneling gas into a stellar nursery (opens in new tab)

Stars form when vast clouds of cold gas in space collapse under their own gravity. But not all gas collapses, and not all clouds form stars equally efficiently. A longstanding puzzle in astrophysics is what controls this process—and a leading suspect has been the role of magnetic fields, which thread through interstellar gas like an invisible scaffolding.