A group of graduate students, bored during a cloudy night at the observatory, begin to make bets about the time different stars will take to evolve. If they have a cluster of stars which were all born at roughly the same time, and want to know which star will become a red giant first, which of the following stars should they bet on?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Type O stars, being the most massive and hottest among the main sequence stars, burn through their nuclear fuel much more rapidly than less massive stars. Therefore, a type O star would evolve into a red giant phase faster than the other stars listed.

A Group of Graduate Students, Bored During a Cloudy Night