The helium flash only last for a couple of minutes.
The difference is in mass. Low to medium mass stars (up to about 8-10 solar masses) become white dwarfs. Massive stars (10 to 25 solar masses) become neutron stars. Stars above 25 solar masses tend to become black holes.
Stars do not have weight they have mass. Our Sun is said to be one solar mass or 1.98892×1030 kg. There are stars smaller than our Sun (read dwarfs) which can be down to 0.075 solar masses and stars much much bigger than the Sun (Hypergiants) which can reach 80-150 solar masses.
Below about 0.08 solar masses an object will not be able to ignite nuclear fusion. There may be small amounts of deuterium fusion, but it is not sustainable. Objects between 0.08 solar masses and about 13 Jupiter masses are called brown dwarfs.
Most stars are red dwarfs which range from half the mass of the Sun, down to about 0.075 solar masses.
Not necessarily. In simplest form, 600 billion solar masses simply means that something is 600 billion times more massive than the sun, regardless of what it is. The sun is more massive than the average star, so if we are talking about stars alone, then 600 billion masses would be equivalent to more than 600 billion stars. It would also depend on what the context is. For example if a galaxy is 600 billion solar masses, much of that mass would be in interstellar gas and dust clouds in addition to stars.
Some stars do not develop degenerate helium cores.
The difference is in mass. Low to medium mass stars (up to about 8-10 solar masses) become white dwarfs. Massive stars (10 to 25 solar masses) become neutron stars. Stars above 25 solar masses tend to become black holes.
Not exactly; stars come in different sizes; or in this case, different masses. In fact, the large majority of stars are red dwarves, which are smaller - and less massive - than the Sun; therefore, I would suspect that a billion stars (randomly selected - or perhaps all the stars in a small galaxy) would have a bit LESS than a billion solar masses. A "solar mass" is simply a convenient way to visualize large masses; for example, for a supergalactic black hole, "a billion solar masses" is easier to visualize than "2 times 10 to the power 39 kilograms".
Stars do not have weight they have mass. Our Sun is said to be one solar mass or 1.98892×1030 kg. There are stars smaller than our Sun (read dwarfs) which can be down to 0.075 solar masses and stars much much bigger than the Sun (Hypergiants) which can reach 80-150 solar masses.
they run out of helium and eventually explode and ruin the entire solar system
In the interior of certain massive stars.
Below about 0.08 solar masses an object will not be able to ignite nuclear fusion. There may be small amounts of deuterium fusion, but it is not sustainable. Objects between 0.08 solar masses and about 13 Jupiter masses are called brown dwarfs.
Most stars are red dwarfs which range from half the mass of the Sun, down to about 0.075 solar masses.
Supergiants are the most massive stars, occupy the top region of Hertzsprung-russell diagram . Supergiants can have 10 to 70 solar masses and luminosity up to hundreds of thousands times the solar luminosity and because of their large masses they have lifespan of few million years and may be less than this value .
Red super-giants form when stars of more than ten solar masses begin to burn their helium. Eventually such a star will burn all of possible fuels and go into gravitational collapse, resulting in a super-nova. If the mass left over from this collapse is large enough (a remnant of three to five solar masses), the remnant will collapse into a black hole.
What the core of the star will become is dependent of the mass of the supergiant star. Stars between about 3 and 10 solar masses will generally become neutron stars. Stars above 10 solar masses generally become black holes.
Not necessarily. In simplest form, 600 billion solar masses simply means that something is 600 billion times more massive than the sun, regardless of what it is. The sun is more massive than the average star, so if we are talking about stars alone, then 600 billion masses would be equivalent to more than 600 billion stars. It would also depend on what the context is. For example if a galaxy is 600 billion solar masses, much of that mass would be in interstellar gas and dust clouds in addition to stars.