1/5/2024 0 Comments Massive starThese giants are typically found in the densely populated hearts of dust-shrouded star clusters. One big obstacle standing in the way of scientists trying to solve this puzzle is obtaining observations of these stars. Updated and edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen. Astronomers still do not understand how massive stars, which are more than 100 times the mass of the Sun, are formed. (Note: we don't have images of all the stars in the list, but have included them when there's an actual scientific observation showing the star or its region in space.) Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, it's a hulking behemoth weighing somewhere between 150 and 200 times the mass of the sun. How they can exist is still something astronomers are figuring out. Meet R136a1, the most massive star known. A star with a mass like the Sun, on the other hand, can. Yet, there are stars at the top of the following list are beyond that limit. The most massive stars can burn out and explode in a supernova after only a few million years of fusion. Interestingly, the theoretical limit to a star's mass is about 120 solar masses (that is, that's how massive they can become and still remain stable). That distinction depends not only on mass, but at what stage of evolution the star is currently in. It is important to note that "most massive" doesn't necessarily mean the largest. ![]() Some are only a fraction of the Sun's mass, while others are equivalent to hundreds of Suns. Even a quick glance at the sky can tell you about stars: some look brighter than others, some may even seem to have a colorful hue.Īstronomers study stars' characteristics and work to calculate their masses to understand something about how they are born, live, and die. Despite this rarity, they play a key role in. On dark night you can see perhaps a few thousand, depending on the location where you do your viewing. Massive stars are very rare for each star of 20 solar masses there are some 100,000 stars of 1 solar mass. The outer arm of the spiral in this huge, oddly shaped stellar nursery called NGC 346 may be feeding star formation in a river-like motion of gas and stars. There are trillions upon trillions of stars in the universe.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |