Nearby Cluster Shows Extremes of Stardom

摘要

In the life of every small star, there comes a moment of reckoning when it stands on the edge between burnout and enduring brilliance. If the star's mass lies below a certain value, it runs out of nuclear fuel and begins to fade into a husk known as a brown dwarf. If its mass exceeds that value, the center of the star becomes hot enough to achieve a state of self-sustaining fusion, allowing it to burn merrily for trillions of years.