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Photo-erosion is the dispersion of the outer layers of a prestellar core by the ionizing radiation of a nearby O-type or B-type star.
This erosion prevents the accretion of these outer layers around the protostar at the centre of the core; and this, in turn, prevents the protostar from becoming a fully fledged star. The protostar instead becomes a brown dwarf or planetary-mass object.
References
- The formation of free-floating brown dwarves and planetary-mass objects by photo-erosion of prestellar cores, A. P. Whitworth, H. Zinnecker, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 427, Number 1, November III 2004, Page(s) 299 - 306, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20041131
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