Forum: Space / Science

Read the article carefully. The reporter uses Mass and Weight interchangeably, and notes that THIS star weighs 265 SOLs compared to the expected top limit of 150 Sols.

How do you weigh (or determine the mass of) a Star in general:-

if it's got a planet or a binary star, from Kepler's laws of motion (or Newtonian/Einsteinian gravity) you can determine the total mass of the system.

For stars where the binary is too big, or not available, there is a well-established Colour-Luminosity relationship for main sequence stars derived from the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertzsprung%E2%80%93Russell_diagram

The mass is not directly determined from thjis diagram but for Main Sequence stars an adequate calibration exists from numerous other methods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Sequence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93luminosity_relation