Life Cycles of Typical Stars
The stages of evolution of a star largely depend on its initial mass , the mass which it started with. Based on this stars are divided into 3 categories : the low mass stars, the medium mass stars and the heavy ones . Low mass stars have a mass of about less than 0.8 times the mass of the Sun. Since they are less massive, the gravitational pressure at their cores is low, making their fusion really slow. So such stars can undergo fusion for a really long time, which is estimated at around 10 trillion years . These stars are commonly referred to as red dwarf stars and have a low surface temperature, due to low fusion. Medium massed stars , like our Sun, have a mass from 0.8 to 10 times the mass of the Sun . These stars have a higher fusion rate as compared to low mass stars. When these stars run out of hydrogen to fuse, they look for the next best thing to fuse, Helium. Helium fusion occurs in the following steps Calculating the energy released by mass defect, we find