Accelerating stars aging process

[too-open-minded]

Would there be any way possible to make a young star start processing iron and become a black hole faster than it does naturally?

 

I know this is a random question but I am wanting to put something like this in my book and I want it to be scientifically accurate.

[EdEarl]

The larger the star, the faster it turns H into He, He into ... into Fe. Not all stars create iron, see Wikipedia, Table: "Core collapse scenarios by mass and metallicity," and Paragraph Post-main sequence.

 

Wikipedia: Star#age

Most stars are between 1 billion and 10 billion years old. Some stars may even be close to 13.8 billion years old—the observed age of the universe. The oldest star yet discovered, HE 1523-0901, is an estimated 13.2 billion years old.

 

The more massive the star, the shorter its lifespan, primarily because massive stars have greater pressure on their cores, causing them to burn hydrogen more rapidly. The most massive stars last an average of a few million years, while stars of minimum mass (red dwarfs) burn their fuel very slowly and last tens to hundreds of billions of years.

 

 

Wikipedia: Star#mass

One of the most massive stars known is Eta Carinae,^[105] which, with 100–150 times as much mass as the Sun, will have a lifespan of only several million years. A study of the Arches cluster suggests that 150 solar masses is the upper limit for stars in the current era of the universe.

 

In fiction, you might postulate that a small star began its life with much iron from the beginning, assuming another star exploded and left iron debris that was accreted by the newer star. However, IDK if that would affect the minimum mass of such a star as it begins fusing H and He into heavier elements.

 

 

Wikipedia: Iron Star

In astronomy, an iron star is a hypothetical type of star that could occur in the universe in 10¹⁵⁰⁰ years. The premise behind iron stars states that cold fusion occurring via quantum tunnelling would cause the light nuclei in ordinary matter to fuse into iron-56 nuclei. Fission and alpha-particle emission would then make heavy nuclei decay into iron, converting stellar-mass objects to cold spheres of iron.^[1] The formation of these stars is only a possibility if the proton does not decay.

Edited September 25, 2013 by EdEarl

[too-open-minded]

So if you introduce large amounts of iron into the belly of a star, what are the different intervals from amount of iron to star life that can be made?

 

unless I misunderstood you?

[EdEarl]

So if you introduce large amounts of iron into the belly of a star, what are the different intervals from amount of iron to star life that can be made?

 

unless I misunderstood you?

I don't know the answer, and do not know how to calculate it. I think it would depend on a number of factors, including other elements in the star and its size. Maybe no one knows how to make such calculations; the interior of a star is complex. Recently the way the sun's core works has been discovered.

[John Cuthber]

If you put a huge mirror round the star so it's heat and light couldn't escape so easily, it would get hotter and "burn" faster.

[too-open-minded]

How much faster would the huge mirror accelerate its aging process?

[GiantEvil]

I don't know the answer, and do not know how to calculate it. I think it would depend on a number of factors, including other elements in the star and its size. Maybe no one knows how to make such calculations; the interior of a star is complex. Recently the way the sun's core works has been discovered.

Sorry Ed, not picking on you, I'm sure it's a mistake. But the story linked to above contains links in it to an "Electric Universe" site.

Here is a link to an actual reliable source on the story; http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2012/07/09/researchers-create-mri-of-the-suns-interior-motions.html

 

It would appear that the center of the Sun is as big a mystery as ever.

[EdEarl]

Sorry Ed, not picking on you, I'm sure it's a mistake. But the story linked to above contains links in it to an "Electric Universe" site.

Here is a link to an actual reliable source on the story; http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2012/07/09/researchers-create-mri-of-the-suns-interior-motions.html

 

It would appear that the center of the Sun is as big a mystery as ever.

TYVM. Odd, I don't get a link to electric universe, but the article you cite is correct.

[GiantEvil]

YAVW. There are several links in the story to the "Thunderbolts" website. And the story itself mentions;

 

 

In the electric model of stars, the Sun is a positively charged electrode in a circuit, while the negatively charged electrode is located far beyond the planetary orbits. The “virtual cathode” is known as the heliopause.

[BearOfNH]

If you put a huge mirror round the star so it's heat and light couldn't escape so easily, it would get hotter and "burn" faster.

Would you see the same effect with a Dyson sphere?

[John Cuthber]

To an extent, though the point of such a sphere would be to absorb light rather than to reflect it. No absorber is perfect so some light would be reflected back and heat the star. That would make it slightly hooter and burn slightly faster.

[BearOfNH]

... That would make it slightly hooter and burn slightly faster.

 

(Ignoring the temptation to riff on "hooter") Would that then lead to a feedback arrangement, where the hotter star would emit more light/heat, which would then be reflected back to further heat the star, which would then emit more light, etc.

 

I think we're summing a geometric series with a multiplier < 1.0, so it converges. But maybe I'm wrong and it diverges, in which case we've succeeded in accelerating the star's death.

Edited September 30, 2013 by BearOfNH

[John Cuthber]

Even if it settled to a new equilibrium (It might- the sphere would heat up and emit more) there's little doubt it hastens the death of the star.

Once the fuel is used up the star goes out.

If it's producing more power it will get through the fuel quicker.