Relationship between mass and surface temperature of a star

  1. i was wondering if there is a relationship between mass and temperature that would allow me to calculate the surface temperature of a blue super giant of 24 solar masses?

    or do i simply need more information to do this
  2. jcsd
  3. Drakkith

    Staff: Mentor

    I think you would need to know things like age of the star, makeup of the star, and similar stuff.
  4. It's roughly T = T(sol)*M0.5 with M in solar masses.
  5. FtlIsAwesome

    FtlIsAwesome 193
    Gold Member

    By using T = 5,778 * 24^0.5
    I get 28,306 K, which is slightly outside the 30,000 K - 52,000 K range for O class stars.
    So either I didn't use it right, or it doesn't work for O class stars.

    Probably what will be an important factor in determining surface temp is the spectral class (O B A F G K M), and luminosity.
  6. Vanadium 50

    Vanadium 50 17,580
    Staff Emeritus
    Science Advisor
    Education Advisor

    24 solar masses is enormous. This is more than Rigel; it's looking like something like Alnitak. Which, by the way, is around 30K. Getting within 10% with a hand-wavy formula is pretty good.
  7. Drakkith

    Staff: Mentor

    Am I incorrect in thinking that age, metal content, and other various factors would affect the stars temp as well?
  8. so basically i think that there is no relationship between mass and temperature for non main sequence stars so this cant be done. cheers for your help anyways
  9. FtlIsAwesome

    FtlIsAwesome 193
    Gold Member

    There might be a correlation between brightness/magnitude/luminosity and temperature, but that's just my guess.

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