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Does Metallicity Affect the Evolution of a Star?

-- Nye | October 8, 2025

Question:

Does the metallicity of a star affect its mass enough to influence its lifecyle? Are stars of higher metallicity more likely to go supernova instead of becoming white dwarves?

-- Nye

Answer:

The metallicity of a star does not significantly affect its mass after formation but strongly influences how its mass changes during its lifetime. For massive stars, this effect is enough to alter their final destiny, influencing whether they explode as a supernova or collapse directly into a black hole. The abundance of elements heavier than helium (metallicity) plays a key role in a star’s evolution by affecting its opacity and mass-loss rate. For massive stars, the high mass-loss rates caused by high metallicity can be the difference between a supernova and a black hole. For low- and intermediate-mass stars that form white dwarfs, metallicity has a less dramatic effect on the outcome but still influences their evolution.

-- Jeff Mangum

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