Earhart Aerospace Practice Exam 2026 - Free Aerospace Practice Questions and Study Guide

High mass stars typically spend a comparatively short time in the main sequence phase, generally ranging from a few million years. This is primarily due to their rapid rate of fusion, as these stars have much higher temperatures and pressures in their cores, leading to quicker consumption of their hydrogen fuel.

While low mass stars, like our Sun, can remain in the main sequence for billions of years, high mass stars exhaust their hydrogen supply more quickly as they fuse it into heavier elements at a much faster rate. After this main sequence period, they will move on to other stages of stellar evolution much more rapidly than their low mass counterparts. Therefore, a few million years accurately reflects the limited span high mass stars spend in this main sequence stage.