Abstract
Gravity is the weakest of all the fundamental forces, but for all of its want of strength its reach is very long, and it dictates the large-scale structure of the galaxy. Indeed, it is the action of gravity that controls the fate of matter contained within molecular clouds, and it is the long reach of gravity that makes star formation possible. Before looking at the details of star formation, however, let us first briefly summarize what has been deduced about the interstellar medium in earlier chapters, and to again contradict Walt Whitman let us do it in numerical and tabular form. Table 5.1 presents the characteristic numbers and identifiers of the various phases of the interstellar medium.
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