Wherever we have the means of observing them, magnetic fields are present on nearly all scales and
across the full spectrum of astrophysical environments. They provide a mechanism for launching and
collimating outflows winds and jets (Blandford & Payne, 1982) around YSOs, and magnetic fields of
typical strengths 1–100 μG are observed in nearly all star-forming clouds (Crutcher, 2012). Therefore,
it is now widely accepted that most protostellar cores are magnetized to some level.
While it has been shown that magnetic fields are theoretically able to significantly contribute to
solving the angular momentum problem for star formation, the physics at work to conserve or dissipate
angular momentum during the main accretion phase – and therefore the processes allowing star, disk and
planet formation – was still
surprisingly poorly understood when
the project was submitted for
funding by the ERC, in 2015. The
goal of the project was to shed
light on the role of magnetic braking in
regulating angular momentum during
the early phases of star formation,
both observationally and in models.
The MagneticYSOs project aimed at testing if magnetic fields are the missing piece allowing to solve the angular
momentum problem during the Class 0 phase. This major leap forward was made possible by our novel approach combining
unprecedented detailed analysis of a complete set of observational constraints, and their confrontation to comprehensive
MHD simulations of protostellar collapse.
