During their long lives, they are not massive enough to initiate helium fusion so they slowly burn hydrogen and contract for billions of years.
One mystery involving these objects with extremely long life spans is the presence of metals, an observation that suggests these entities were not part of the first generation of stars, since low mass stars cannot form without metals. During their long lives, they are not massive enough to initiate helium fusion so they slowly burn hydrogen and contract for billions of years. For 10 points, name these low luminosity, main sequence stars with K or M spectral type, examples of which include Proxima Centauri and Bernard's Star, that are larger than their white counterparts.
One mystery involving these objects with extremely long life spans is the presence of metals, an observation that suggests these entities were not part of the first generation of stars, since low mass stars cannot form without metals.
{red dwarf}