What is the definition of a high mass star?

Question

I already tried to look it up on dictionary.com, but it was not on there. Please help me.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can usually consider that a star about 10 times more massive than the sun would be a high mass star.
In those high mass star, the fusion of hydrogen is done mainly with the CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle instead of the proton-proton that predominates in main sequence (dwarf) star like the sun. This also means they burn their fuel a lot faster, and have the mass to not only fuse helium (like the sun will do in 4 or 5 billion years during its short giant phase), but also can fuse carbon, nitrogen and oxygen after the hydrogen and helium are exhausted from the core. This super high temperature fusing does not however give up as much energy as fusing lighter nucleus, and so those stars are destined to blow up as supernova at the end of their life, while main sequence stars will shed out their outer layers in the form of a planetary nebula while the core turns into a white dwarf on a slow decay.
Check the suggested links in Wikipedia.

Answer 2

Main Sequence Star Definition

Answer 3

A high mass star is a star with a mass a few hundred times the mass of the Sun.
Note, however that in order to fully answer this question, one should know the context it is used in.

Answer 4

Hi. All stars have a lot of mass. The higher the mass the faster the star must generate energy to avoid collapse. And the hotter and bluer the star.

Answer 5

Dont give me crap about how you cant find any of them... all of this is on wikipedia or google Anyway, a high mass star is self explanatory: a star with a high mass! pay attention in class for once!

Answer 6

A high mass star is a star that is 10 solar masses or greater.

Answer 7

A high mass star usually refers to a neutron star. This is a star that collapsed upon itself but was not massive enough to turn into a black hole so it just became an extremely dense star. These high mass stars emit powerful electromagnetic and other types of radiation (gamma particles for example) but they are not very "bright".

Answer 8

A star is a big mass of hot gases that has enough mass to achieve stellar ignition. A star usually at it's birth has 90 percent hydrogen, 10 percent helium, it can't have more than 1 percent of heavier elements. It burns through a process called nuclear fusion where lighter elements with a smaller amount of protons such has hydrogen fuse together to. If two hydrogen atoms fuse together, they each have one proton, they fuse and now, their is two protons which means, it has turned into helium, two helium atoms can fuse and turn to heavier elements. After all gases are turned to elements like iron, the star will reach the end of it's life cycle and grow ten times bigger than it's original size. If it was a big star, it is now classed has a red super giant, if it was a small star, it is now classed has a red giant. From here on, if it is huge, it can explode into a hyper nova and turn into a black hole or neutron star. When a smaller star dies, it explodes in a supernova. It will be turned into a dwarf star and it's last light will die out after words. After it ignites, it's life span depends on how big it is, if it is a huge star, it will fuse it's gas source faster into heavier elements and die out quicker, if it is smaller, even though it will have less gases, it will burn them slower and live longer. Through it's life, it goes through a number of colors based on how long it has left to live.

Blue Youngest 50,000-25,000 degrees Celsius
Blueish White 24,999-10,000 degrees Celsius
White 9,999-7,500 degrees Celsius
Yellow 7,499-5,000 degrees Celsius
Orange 4,999-3,500 degrees Celsius
Red 3,499-2,500 degrees Celsius

IT IS MORE THAN YOU NEED TO KNOW BUT IT IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO EVER KNOW

Answer 9

A high mass star is the priest who has top billing at the church.

Answer 10

supergiants, stars with masses of 10 to 70 solar masses