Stellar mass loss

Additionally, massive stars are particularly vulnerable to significant mass loss and can be influenced by a number of factors, including: Some of these causes are discussed below, along with the consequences of such phenomenon.

The high temperatures of the corona allow charged particles and other atomic nuclei to gain the energy needed to escape the Sun's gravity.

If the secondary star in the system overflows its Roche lobe, it loses mass to the primary, greatly altering their evolution.

As above, the gravitational hold on the upper layers is weakened, and they may be shed into space by violent events such as the beginning of a helium flash in the core.

The final stage of a red giant's life will also result in prodigious mass loss as the star loses its outer layers to form a planetary nebula.

Over-densities and under-densities reveal the periods where the star was actively losing mass while the distribution of these clumps in space hints at the physical cause of the loss.

Stars found on the Asymptotic giant branch of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram are the most prone to mass loss in the later stages of their evolution compared to others.