# Relationship between temperature of nebula and size of star

I was wondering, in the process of star formation, does the temperature of the nebula that produces a star play a role in the size of that star? I mean, it's only logical that the size would depend on the amount of matter around.But then, if the temperature is lower, that means that the net density is lower, so the star would 'absorb' less matter. Or is that not a factor, and the growing star would gobble up anything on its vicinity? I've encountered some contradicting sources and I'm trying to double check.

• The gas won't be the same temperature everywhere, so the temperature in different sections may determine how much collapses and when, which would indeed influence the mass of the star and thus - in all probability - the size of the star. – HDE 226868 Feb 22 '15 at 22:27

The basic unit in star formation is the Jeans mass. $$M_J \propto T^{3/2} \rho^{-1/2}$$ where $T$ is the temperature, $\rho$ is the density and $M_J$ is the minimum mass for a cloud to gravitationally collapse.