Multiple Star Formation

[VedekPako]

Just how do multiple stars from?

 

Alpha Centauri, for instance.

 

Where they three proto-stellar disks that got caught in their gravitational fields and began to orbit; or, did they form in one proto-stellar disk that had enough mass to form two additional stars?

[Ophiolite]

This is a question that is unanswered in detail. It is likely that many multiple stars arise from fission of the collapsing protostar, but the precise mechanism is unclear in detail. There is good treatment of this issue in a review article from 1987, which also covers many others aspects of star formation. If this is too technical then the Wikipedia article may be of interest.