Why do some stars live only a few million years while others last billions of years?
Quick Answer
Massive stars burn through fuel much faster because their cores are hotter and under greater pressure. Small stars use fuel slowly, so they can shine for tens of billions of years.
The Full Story
A star’s mass largely determines its lifetime. Massive stars have much stronger gravity, which compresses their cores and raises temperatures, causing fusion to proceed far more rapidly. A star like the Sun will live for about 10 billion years, while a star many times more massive may last only a few million years. Smaller red dwarfs are so efficient that they can live for trillions of years, longer than the current age of the universe. This mass-lifetime relationship is one of the most important patterns in stellar evolution.
Key Facts
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