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Title: Why is the main sequence main? Why are these stars so common? Post by: barry on Aug 2, 2013 Why is the main sequence main? Why are these stars so common?
Title: Re: Why is the main sequence main? Why are these stars so common? Post by: doseofmegan on Aug 2, 2013 "For three reasons.
1) Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. 2) ALL stars spend a part of their life on the main sequence because wile on the main sequence the fuel they are fusing is Hydrogen. 3) For a given mass of hydrogen, the energy output created by fusing hydrogen is the greatest of all fusible elements (i.e the elements up to Iron). Thus as stars start fusing other elements (and thereby moving off the main sequence) they burn through their fuel very quickly and either explode a supernovae or decay into white dwarfs (depending on their initial mass). One may also note that the most common type of stars are red dwarf stars on the main sequence and this is because the rate of hydrogen fusion depends on the stars mass a really big star will only last a few million years while a small red dwarf will shine for trillions of years. Thus the big stars die quickly while the small ones last a long time so one ends up with more of them (more smaller stars may also be produced in the first place too)." |