Masses of Stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
Masses in units of solar masses
Text Box: Low masses
Low masses
Text Box: High masses
High masses
Text Box: Mass
Mass
The higher a star’s mass, the more luminous (brighter) it is:
High-mass stars have much shorter lives than low-mass stars:
Sun: ~ 10 billion yr.
10 Msun: ~ 30 million yr.
0.1 Msun: ~ 3 trillion yr.
L ~ M3.5
tlife ~ M-2.5
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