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Stellar lifetimes — the series

One essay so far on this idea, and more questions about it than one essay answers.
  1. How long a star lasts, against its mass. Main-sequence lifetime against mass, on logarithmic axes. Fuel grows in proportion to mass and consumption grows as its three-and-a-half power, so the lifetime falls steeply — a star of thirty solar masses lives for a few million years.

    Why the biggest stars die first, and take the galaxy with them

    A star thirty times the Sun's mass has thirty times the fuel and burns it forty thousand times faster. It lasts a few million years, and everything heavier than iron exists because of it.

    part 1 · stars

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