Astronomy stars?

Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:10 pm

Rosemarie Asked:

what is the relationship between mass and luminosity and mass and surface temperature for a Astronomy star in its middle life? i can't see a pattern

Reply:

Generally, the larger the mass, the brighter (and bluer) the star. There's some variability, because stars are made up of mixes of different elements, but for example, our sun, a fairly small star, Cheap Alli will burn longer & more stabily than a blue giant, which will burn 10,000 times faster & brighter - and die far quicker than our sun.