Home▸Space & Astronomy▸Stellar Lifespan Race (2D)

Stellar Lifespan Race (2D)

A 2D top-down race track version: launch stars of different masses and watch the mass-luminosity and main-sequence lifetime scaling laws play out as they race toward the finish line, then swell into red giants and collapse into white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes.

Space & Astronomy2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

Launch stars of any mass from 0.1 to 40 solar masses onto a 2D race track and watch them race through their main-sequence lifetimes side by side. Each star's luminosity, radius, surface color and lifespan follow the real mass-luminosity and main-sequence lifetime scaling laws, so a blue supergiant blazes past a red dwarf's finish line in a fraction of a percent of the time — then swells into a red giant and collapses into a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole depending on how massive it was. Drag to pan the track and scroll to zoom in on the early race.

⚙ Under the hood

Launch stars of different masses onto a 2D race track and watch the mass-luminosity and main-sequence lifetime scaling laws play out: massive blue stars burn brilliantly and die in millions of years while red dwarfs barely dim over billions. Drag to pan the track and scroll to zoom in on the early race.

stellar evolutionastrophysicsmain sequencemass-luminosity relationsupernova remnants2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install