Question

What is the range of mass of a protostar?

Answer 1

The range could be from about `10^(-2)` solar mass to `10^4` solar mass or more.

Explanation:

A protostar is a very young star that is gathering mass from molecular cloud surrounding it. This phase of a star is the earliest phase in the stellar evolution.

As such stars gain mass by accretion, its temperature increases while the area over which it is spread decreases due to gravitational contraction.

If it gathers `0.08` or more of solar mass, hydrogen starts burning and the protostar joins the main sequence as a normal star. But if it does not reach this much mass, it just remains as a brown dwarf. The latter just emit in infrared range of electromagnetic waves.

However, some protostars gather very large mass upto `10^4` solar mass or even more.