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To: LibWhacker

I know I could look this up but what is the distribution of stars with regard to solar mass? i.e. median star is x solar mass, one standard deviation is y solar mass etc.


10 posted on 08/11/2011 2:58:31 PM PDT by cicero2k
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To: cicero2k

I’d have to look it up, too (and will because it never hurts to review!). But I do know most stars are dwarf stars and that the Sun is in approximately the 75th percentile when it comes to mass.


12 posted on 08/11/2011 3:17:39 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: cicero2k
Sorry, I'm having no luck looking up that information. I know I've seen it recently. But I'm sure it was only based on the current rough estimates astronomers are coming up with, which depend on the data coming down from the latest generation of spacecraft.

Everyone seems to be holding their breath waiting for more data. For example, nobody has any idea what percentage of stars are brown or red dwarfs yet. Also, the mass distribution of the stars we can see best (our neighbors in the Orion arm of the Milky Way) is known not to be representative of stars in the Milky Way as a whole; the center of the Milky Way has a different distribution, as does the halo, etc.

23 posted on 08/12/2011 10:47:36 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: cicero2k
OK... Just found this (look about 25% of the way down the page):
Taking this into account, and assuming that the nearest neighborhood is most representative with regard to the red dwarfs, the % distribution of the local galactic stellar population is as follows, taking all main sequence (V), subgiants (IV) and subdwarfs (VI) together (by far most of these are V anyway), but giants (III) separate:
O and B: 0
A: 1 %
F: 3 %
G: 6 %
K: 14 %
M: 70 %
White dwarfs: 5 %
Giants (III): 1 %
(The % of M may actually be 72% and of F and K 1 % lower each).

Mass distribution is indicated here: http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~thenry/RECONS/mf.2009.0.html

24 posted on 08/12/2011 11:20:48 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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