Knowra Stellar mass loss Stellar mass loss Stellar mass loss is the escape of gas from a star through steady winds, episodic eruptions, or other outflows. It changes a star’s evolution and enriches the surrounding medium with stellar material.
Radiation-driven stellar wind : A stellar wind accelerated when radiation transfers momentum to gas, often through absorption and scattering by spectral lines. Radiation pressure on spectral lines drives the fast winds of many hot, massive stars.
Wolf–Rayet star : A hot, massive star showing broad emission lines from a dense, fast stellar wind. Its strong wind exposes layers processed by nuclear fusion.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin : An astronomer whose 1925 doctoral work established that stars are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Her work helped establish the stellar atmospheres from which outflows are observed.
Eddington limit : The luminosity at which outward radiation force balances inward gravity for a specified opacity. Stars near this limit may launch powerful outflows, but the threshold depends on opacity and structure.
Pulsation-driven mass loss : Stellar pulsations lift atmospheric gas outward, helping it cool and condense into material that can escape. Pulsations help launch dense winds from cool, luminous giant stars.
Asymptotic giant branch : A late evolutionary phase of low- and intermediate-mass stars, marked by a cool, luminous atmosphere and shell burning. Stars on this branch can lose much of their envelopes in dusty winds.
Lyman-alpha forest : A series of absorption features in distant-quasar spectra, produced mainly by intervening intergalactic hydrogen. Its absorption is not stellar mass loss, but helps distinguish stellar outflows from intervening gas.
Clumping factor : A measure comparing the mean square density of an inhomogeneous gas with the square of its mean density. Wind clumping alters density-sensitive diagnostics and can revise inferred mass-loss rates.
Dust-driven wind : A stellar outflow accelerated when radiation pushes on dust grains that transfer momentum to surrounding gas. Dust grains enable radiation pressure to expel gas from many cool giant stars.
Supernova progenitor : A star that undergoes a supernova, or a stellar system whose evolution produces one. The star’s prior mass loss helps determine its final structure and supernova type.
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