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Stellar mass is a phrase that is used by astronomers to describe the mass of a star. It is usually enumerated in terms of the Sun 's mass as a proportion of a solar mass ( M ☉ ). Hence, the bright star Sirius has around 2.02 M ☉ . [ 1 ]
The solar mass (M ☉) is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately 2 × 10 30 kg (20 nonillion kilograms in US short scale). It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. More precisely, the mass of the ...
The mass/luminosity relationship can also be used to determine the lifetime of stars by noting that lifetime is approximately proportional to M/L although one finds that more massive stars have shorter lifetimes than that which the M/L relationship predicts. A more sophisticated calculation factors in a star's loss of mass over time.
[5] [3] Using the mass function and the radial velocity of the host star, the minimum mass of an exoplanet can be determined. [15] [16]: 9 [12] [17] Applying this method on Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system, led to the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, a terrestrial planet with a minimum mass of 1.27 M E. [18]
For a star with the mass of the Sun, this period is around ten billion years. At 5 M ☉ the lifetime is 65 million years while at 25 M ☉ the core hydrogen–fusing period is only six million years. [7] The longest-lived stars are fully convective red dwarfs, which can stay on the main sequence for hundreds of billions of years or more. [8]
The properties and evolution of a star are closely related to its mass, so the IMF is an important diagnostic tool for astronomers studying large quantities of stars. For example, the initial mass of a star is the primary factor of determining its colour, luminosity, radius, radiation spectrum, and quantity of materials and energy it emitted ...
The true stellar density near the Sun is estimated as 0.004 stars per cubic light year, or 0.14 stars pc −3. When combined with estimates of the stellar masses, this yields a mass density estimate of 4 × 10 −24 g/cm 3 or 0.059 solar masses per cubic parsec. The density estimate varies across space, with the density decreasing rapidly in ...
In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars, binary systems, [1] nebulae, [2] and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets detected by the radial velocity method or Doppler spectroscopy, and is determined using the binary mass function .