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Astronomy

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    $\begingroup$ Is that the arithmetic mean mass or the median mass, or does stellar mass have a distribution (such as normal) such that those are the same? $\endgroup$
    – gerrit
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 7:30
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    $\begingroup$ @gerrit It's roughy the mean mass. The median mass is a touch lower. I'd have to work it out for some assumed mass function, but it's definitely well below a solar mass. $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 10:01
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    $\begingroup$ Where does the 1000 come from? 15 / 0.3 = 50, not 1000. $\endgroup$
    – ypercubeᵀᴹ
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 12:56
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    $\begingroup$ @ypercubeᵀ��� a typical star contains 0.3*0.01 solar masses of heavy elements. A high mass star releases 3 solar masses of heavy elements. The number of typical stars that can thus be enriched is 3/(0.3*0.01) = 1000. $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 13:01
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    $\begingroup$ I see thnx. So the supernova gives enough heavy-element mass for the "production" of about 1000 stars, assuming that there is enough light-element mass in the interstellar gas around to cover the rest 99%. $\endgroup$
    – ypercubeᵀᴹ
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 13:05