What are the 7 different spectral classes of stars?
The stars are divided into 7 classes designated by the letters O, B, A, F, G, K, and M; the hottest stars (O and B) are blue-white in color, while the coolest (M) are red.
What does the spectral type of a star tell you?
To those who can read its meaning, the spectral code tells at a glance just what kind of object the star really is: its color, size, and luminosity compared to the Sun and stars of all other types; its peculiarities, its history, and its future.
What properties of stars does the spectral type describe?
The spectral types and sub-classes represent a temperature sequence, from hotter (O stars) to cooler (M stars), and from hotter (subclass 0) to cooler (subclass 9). The temperature defines the star’s “color” and surface brightness.
What are the 6 types of stars?
Exploring the stars: Six star types you should know about
- We are familiar with the idea that the twinkling pinpricks of light in the sky are stars, like our own Sun.
- Solar-type Stars.
- Hot Blue Stars.
- Red Dwarf Stars.
- Red Giant Stars.
- White Dwarfs.
- Neutron Stars and Black Holes.
What are luminosity classes?
A classification of stars according to their luminosity, which can vary widely for a given spectral type. Luminosity class indicates, for example, whether a star is a supergiant, a giant, or a dwarf.
Why do we classify stars using their spectral types?
Classification of Stellar Spectra. Astronomers use the patterns of lines observed in stellar spectra to sort stars into a spectral class. Because a star’s temperature determines which absorption lines are present in its spectrum, these spectral classes are a measure of its surface temperature.
What are the four spectral class of star needed for life?
Luminosity class 0 or Ia+ is used for hypergiants, class I for supergiants, class II for bright giants, class III for regular giants, class IV for subgiants, class V for main-sequence stars, class sd (or VI) for subdwarfs, and class D (or VII) for white dwarfs.
What is meant by spectral class?
spectral class noun. any of various groups into which stars are classified according to characteristic spectral lines and bands. The most important classification (Harvard classification) has a series of classes O, B, A, F, G, K, M, the series also being a scale of diminishing surface temperature.
What spectral classification of Star is the most common?
Red dwarfs are the most common type of star. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf.
What is a stellar spectrum?
A star’s spectrum contains information about its temperature, chemical composition, and intrinsic luminosity. Spectrograms secured with a slit spectrograph consist of a sequence of images of the slit in the light of the star at successive wavelengths.