Making massive stars
Monday, August 29, 2011 - 09:00
in Astronomy & Space
How do massive stars form? Stars with more than about eight times as much mass as the sun are arguably the most important actors in the universe. Although they live only hundreds of millions of years, they are much hotter and more luminous than the sun, and during their brief lifetimes their nuclear furnaces produce a wide range of chemical elements (the universe was created with primarily hydrogen and helium). In their dramatic deaths as supernovae they disburse these elements into the cosmos. They also can leave behind neutron stars or black holes.