Lecture 17: The Evolution of High-Mass Stars

What happens when a high-mass (more than 4 solar masses) Main Sequence stars runs out of Hydrogen in its core. At first the internal evolution looks like that of a low-mass star, but now we get first a Red Supergiant then a sucession of blue and red supergiant phases as different nuclear fuels are tapped by the star for its energy. This lecture describes the evolution of high-mass stars from the Main Sequence until their eventual ends. Recorded 2006 January 27 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.