View Full Version : How can you estimate mass of star?
dsisk559
Oct16-09, 04:55 PM
Is there a way to estimate the mass of a star using Spectral Class and absolute magnitude?
If you can't then what info do I need in order to so.
Thanks,
Dan
mgb_phys
Oct16-09, 08:40 PM
From the absolute magnitude and the luminosity magnitude relationship you can pretty easily get the mass of a main sequence star.
L = M ^ 3.5 ( with L and M relative to the sun)
For larger or smaller stars there is a different exponent and sometimes slightly more complex relationship.
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