Publication Abstracts

Stothers 1985

Stothers, R.B., 1985: Evolution of massive stars in very young clusters and associations. Astrophys. J., 298, 521-527, doi:10.1086/163637.

The stellar content of very young galactic clusters and associations with well-determined ages has been analyzed statistically to derive information about stellar evolution at high masses. The adopted approach is semiempirical and uses natural spectroscopic groups of stars on the H-R diagram, together with the stars' apparent magnitudes. Cluster distance moduli are not used. Only the most basic elements of stellar evolution theory are required as input. For stellar aggregates with main-sequence turnups at spectral types between O9 and B2, the following conclusions have emerged: (1) O-type main-sequence stars evolve to a spectral type of B1 during core hydrogen burning; (2) most of the O-type blue stragglers are newly formed massive stars, burning core hydrogen; (3) supergiants lying redward of the turnup, as well as most, or all, of the Wolf-Rayet stars, are burning core helium; (4) Wolf-Rayet stars originally had masses greater than 30-40 M, while known M-type supergiants evolved from stars less massive than ∼30 M; (5) phases of evolution following core helium burning are unobservably rapid, presumably on account of copious neutrino emission; and (6) formation of stars of high mass continues vigorously in most young clusters and associations for ∼8×106 yr. The important result concerning the evolutionary status of the supergiants depends only on the total number of these stars and not on how they are distributed between blue and red types; the result, however, may be sensitlve to the assumed amount of convective core overshooting. Conclusions in the present work refer chiefly to luminous stars in the mass range 10-40 M, belonging to aggregates in the age range (6-25)×106 yr.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{st03120f,
  author={Stothers, R. B.},
  title={Evolution of massive stars in very young clusters and associations},
  year={1985},
  journal={Astrophysical Journal},
  volume={298},
  pages={521--527},
  doi={10.1086/163637},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - st03120f
AU  - Stothers, R. B.
PY  - 1985
TI  - Evolution of massive stars in very young clusters and associations
JA  - Astrophys. J.
JO  - Astrophysical Journal
VL  - 298
SP  - 521
EP  - 527
DO  - 10.1086/163637
ER  -

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