How much faster is the formation time for high-mass stars ($>8 M_{ ext{sun}}$) compared to solar-mass stars?
Answer
They take on the order of just a few hundred thousand years
The formation timelines for high-mass stars, defined as those exceeding eight times the mass of the Sun, are dramatically shorter than those for solar-mass stars. Due to their significantly stronger gravitational fields, these massive objects can accrete material much more rapidly, driving up core pressures to the threshold necessary for nuclear ignition swiftly. While a solar-mass star takes about 50 million years, these stellar heavyweights can complete this entire evolutionary sequence—from initial collapse to main-sequence ignition—in a period as brief as a few hundred thousand years, or $10^5$ years, demonstrating the universe's impatience for forming its largest stars.
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