Credit: NASA, H.E. Bond and E. Nelan (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.); M. Barstow and M. Burleigh (University of Leicester, U.K.); and J.B. Holberg (University of Arizona)
Main sequence stars are stars that are fusing hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their cores. Most of the stars in the universe — about 90 percent of them — are main sequence stars. The sun is a main sequence star. These stars can range from about a tenth of the mass of the sun to up to 200 times as massive.
Stars start their lives as clouds of dust and gas. Gravity draws these clouds together. A small protostar forms, powered by the collapsing material. Smaller bodies — with less than 0.08 the sun's mass — cannot reach the stage of nuclear fusion at their core. Instead, they become brown dwarfs, stars that never twinkle. But if the body has sufficient mass, the collapsing gas and dust burns hotter, eventually reaching temperatures sufficient to fuse hydrogen into helium. The star turns on and becomes a main sequence star, powered by hydrogen fusion. Fusion produces an outward pressure that balances with the inward pressure caused by gravity, stabilizing the star.
How long a main sequence star lives depends on how massive it is. A higher-mass star might have more material, but it burns through it faster due to higher core temperatures caused by greater gravitational forces. While the sun will spend about 10 billion years on the main sequence, a star 10 times as massive will stick around for only 20 million years. A red dwarf, which is half as massive as the sun, can last 80 to 100 billion years, which is far longer than the age of the universe. (This long lifetime is one reason red dwarfs are considered to be good sources for planets hosting life, because they are stable for such a long time.)
Bright shining star
In the early 20th century, astronomers realized that the mass of a star is related to its luminosity, or how much light it produces. These are both related to the stellar temperature. Stars 10 times as massive as the sun shine more than a thousand times as much.
The mass and luminosity of a star also relate to its color. More massive stars are bluer, while less massive stars have a reddish appearance. The sun falls in between the spectrum, given it a more yellowish appearance.
When the stars go out
Eventually, a main sequence star burns through the hydrogen in its core, reaching the end of its life cycle. Stars smaller than a quarter the mass of the sun collapse directly into white dwarfs. Larger stars find their outer layers collapsing inward until temperatures are hot enough to fuse helium into carbon. Then the pressure of fusion provides an outward thrust that expands the star several times larger than its original size, forming a red giant. The new star is far dimmer than it was as a main sequence star.
If the original star had up to 10 times the mass of the sun, it burns through its material within 100 million years and collapses into a super-dense white dwarf. More massive stars explode in a violent supernova death, spewing the heavier elements formed in their core across the galaxy.
The long lifetime of red dwarfs means that even those formed shortly after the Big Bang still exist today. Eventually, however, these low-mass bodies will burn through their hydrogen. They will grow dimmer and cooler, and eventually the lights will go out.
