Massive star

A star born with substantially more mass than the Sun, typically above about eight solar masses. It shines brightly, burns its nuclear fuel rapidly, and can end in a core-collapse supernova.

Stellar nucleosynthesis: The creation of new atomic nuclei through nuclear reactions inside stars and during stellar explosions. Fusion in massive stars builds elements up to iron before their cores collapse.
Molecular cloud: A cold, dense interstellar cloud of gas and dust in which molecules form and stars can be born. Massive stars begin in collapsing regions of molecular clouds.
H II region: A region of ionized hydrogen created when ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars strips electrons from surrounding gas. Massive stars power bright H II regions around their birth sites.
Eta Carinae: A highly luminous, unstable stellar system in the Carina Nebula, including a massive luminous blue variable. Its nineteenth-century Great Eruption exposed the violence possible before a massive star's final death.
Low-mass star: A star born with substantially less mass than the Sun, evolving slowly and ending without core collapse. Its long, relatively quiet evolution contrasts with the short lives and explosive deaths of massive stars.
Eddington limit: The luminosity at which outward radiation pressure balances inward gravitational attraction in a radiating object. It helps explain why extreme luminosity constrains the masses and stability of massive stars.
Jeans instability: The gravitational instability that causes a gas cloud to collapse when its mass exceeds the Jeans mass. Cloud collapse supplies the initial fragments from which massive stars grow.
Stellar wind: A continuous outflow of gas from a star into its surrounding space. Strong winds from massive stars inject momentum and enriched material into the interstellar medium.
R136a1: An exceptionally massive and luminous star in the young cluster R136 within the Large Magellanic Cloud. It demonstrates how far stellar birth masses can exceed the Sun's.
Intermediate-mass star: A star born with a few times the Sun's mass, evolving between low-mass and massive stars. Its typical evolution toward a white dwarf marks a boundary with core-collapse outcomes.

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