Lifetime of Stars


What does all this tell us about the lifetime of stars?


How long until you run out of fuel = amount of fuel / rate of burn

miles until empty = gallons of gas / gallons per mile

lifetime of star = amount of Hydrogen / rate of burning Hydrogen

lifetime of star proportional to (mass of star) / (luminosity of star)

From measuring the masses and luminosity of nearby stars, we know that

so we find that



type   Mass   Temp    Radius   Lum  (Sun=1)     Lifetime 
-----------------------------------------------------------
O      60.0  50,000     15.0   1,400,000            430,000
B      18.0  28,000      7.0      20,000          9,000,000
A       3.2  10,000      2.5          80        400,000,000
F       1.7   7,400      1.3           6      3,000,000,000
G       1.1   6,000      1.1           1.2    9,000,000,000
K       0.8   4,900      0.9           0.4   20,000,000,000
M       0.3   3,000      0.4           0.04  75,000,000,000
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