Dimethylmercury ((CH3)2Hg) is an organomercury compound. This colorless liquid is one of the strongest known neurotoxins. It is described as having a slightly sweet smell, although inhaling enough vapor to detect its odor would be hazardous.
The formation of a star begins with gravitational instability within a molecular cloud, caused by regions of higher density-often triggered by shock-waves from nearby supernovae (massive stellar explosions), the collision of different molecular clouds, or the collision of galaxies (as in a starburst galaxy).
This could have been the result of a passing star, or shock waves from a supernova, but the end result was a gravitational collapse at the center of the cloud. 1  Artistâs concept of a star surrounded by a molecular cloud to form a swirling disk called a âprotoplanetary disk.â Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.