= Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling time
{c}
{title2=$\tau_{\rm KH}\sim GM^2/(RL_{\rm int})$}
The Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling time estimates how long a self-gravitating body can radiate a reservoir of energy of order its gravitational binding energy. It uses intrinsic luminosity $L_{\rm int}$, excluding reradiated stellar light. At fixed radius and structure, this reservoir scales as $M^2$; the approximation changes when degeneracy or other internal physics changes the accessible energy.
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