What characteristic distinguishes the post-main sequence life phase of a massive star compared to the Sun's?
Answer
Its subsequent core fusion stages leading to collapse last only thousands of years, compressing its total career
While the Sun spends about 10 billion years on the main sequence and then roughly 1 billion years evolving into a red giant, the entire stellar career of a massive star is dramatically compressed. After a mere 10 million years of hydrogen fusion (main sequence), the massive star rapidly progresses through subsequent fusion stages involving heavier elements. These post-main sequence phases, culminating in the iron core collapse, are swift, often lasting only thousands of years, resulting in their entire stellar existence being compressed into a very short cosmic timescale relative to solar-type stars.
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