[mesa-users] A common stellar-structure myth
RICHARD H D TOWNSEND
townsend at astro.wisc.edu
Tue Aug 30 18:17:55 EDT 2016
That’s as maybe, but the gravity is not stronger.
In any case, what really drives the large energy generation rate in massive stars is the energy loss rate through the stellar surface, which scale as L ~ M^3 (independent of nuclear reactions). The pre-MS star continues to contract until the core energy generation rate matches this loss rate.
cheers,
Rich
> On Aug 30, 2016, at 5:05 PM, Tomasz Plewa <tomekplewa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It's a deeper potential well.
>
> Tomek
> --
>
>
>> On Aug 30, 2016, at 5:52 PM, RICHARD H D TOWNSEND <townsend at astro.wisc.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hi folks —
>>
>> While reading the textbook I’m going to be teaching from this semester (“Pathways to Astronomy”, by Schneider & Arny), I came across this common myth about stellar structure:
>>
>> “The stronger gravity of a more massive star drives up the rate of nuclear fusion dramatically, while smaller stars consume their fuel at a more leisurely pace”.
>>
>> The attached figure, courtesy of MESA, shows the internal gravity for 1Msun and 10Msun stars at the ZAMS — and nicely busts the myth.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Rich
>>
>> <gravity.pdf>
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