Question

1. Supermassive Stars: Basic Properties There is a theory, in part developed by your professor, that under extreme conditions in the early Universe, supermassive stars could have formed. Such stars are estimated to have masses of order M. ~ 10>Mo. They are beyond the horizon of what the best available telescopes can currently see, but the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) should be able to detect them at redshifts 10. Work out, by employing simplified ('back-of-the-envelope') arguments, some of the basic properties of the supermassive stars: (i) What is the luminosity (in units of Lo)? What is the stellar radius (in units of Ro)? What is the star's effective temperature? (i) What is the temperature at the center of the star? (ii) Estimate the lifetime of the star! At the end of its life, what will likely happen to the star?

Answer 1