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Representative lifetimes of stars as a function of their masses The change in size with time of a Sun-like star Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right Chart of stellar evolution A mass-radius plot ...
The evolution of binary star and higher-order star systems is intensely researched since so many stars have been found to be members of binary systems. Around half of Sun-like stars, and an even higher proportion of more massive stars, form in multiple systems, and this may greatly influence such phenomena as novae and supernovae, the formation ...
Observations suggest that star formation efficiency in molecular gas is almost universal, with around 1% of the gas being converted into stars per free fall time. [30] In simulations, the gas is typically converted into star particles using a probabilistic sampling scheme based on the calculated star formation rate.
Evolution of a Sun-like star. The track of a one solar mass star on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram is shown from the main sequence to the post-asymptotic-giant-branch stage. The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence stage, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium.
Stars can form orbital systems with other astronomical objects, as in planetary systems and star systems with two or more stars. When two such stars orbit closely, their gravitational interaction can significantly impact their evolution. Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, such as a star cluster or a galaxy.
Class II objects have circumstellar disks and correspond roughly to classical T Tauri stars, while Class III stars have lost their disks and correspond approximately to weak-line T Tauri stars. An intermediate stage where disks can only be detected at longer wavelengths (e.g., at 24 μ m {\displaystyle 24{\mu }m} ) are known as transition-disk ...
This obscure terminology is a hold-over from a late nineteenth century model of stellar evolution, which supposed that stars were powered by gravitational contraction via the Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism, which is now known to not apply to main-sequence stars. If that were true, then stars would start their lives as very hot "early-type" stars ...
As stars evolve, so do their emissions; younger stars tend to be the most active, meaning they have stronger winds, larger flaring events, and an increased frequency of CMEs. [13] This means that planets orbiting younger stars would endure more volatile stellar events that impact their habitable and abiogenesis zones, perhaps even making them ...