Talk:Age crisis

What about stellar winds affecting age estimates?

What about stellar winds affecting age estimates? The explanation I'd seen for resolving this discrepancy was that early models of the ages of stars in globular clusters did not take into account mass loss due to stellar winds over the star's life (especially its early life). The end result was that the estimate of the initial (early-life) mass of these stars was low, and so the estimate of these stars' lifetimes were high. Improving the model of stellar evolution resolved the discrepancy and brought globular cluster age estimates down to match the estimated age of the universe.

This might be what the article means by realizing that the stars were more luminous than previously believed, but if so, it's phrased very badly (it implies that we underestimated their present, rather than past, luminosity). --Christopher Thomas (talk) 06:01, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For further puzzlement, the globular cluster article briefly mentions improved stellar models, but refers to modelling stellar mixing rather than to winds (both could very easily have been aspects added/improved in the models). --Christopher Thomas (talk) 06:05, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]