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    Properties of Stars

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    Sally Custodio
    Stars can be classified by three main properties: 1. Temperature and color - Hotter stars are blue in color while cooler stars are red. Color indicates temperature. 2. Size - Stars range in size from small white dwarfs to large giants and supergiants. 3. Brightness - Stars have apparent and absolute brightness. Apparent brightness depends on size, temperature, and distance from Earth. The H-R diagram shows the relationship between luminosity and temperature.

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    Properties of Stars

    Uploaded by

    Sally Custodio
    97 views15 pages
    Stars can be classified by three main properties: 1. Temperature and color - Hotter stars are blue in color while cooler stars are red. Color indicates temperature. 2. Size - Stars range in size from small white dwarfs to large giants and supergiants. 3. Brightness - Stars have apparent and absolute brightness. Apparent brightness depends on size, temperature, and distance from Earth. The H-R diagram shows the relationship between luminosity and temperature.

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    Stars can be classified by three main properties: 1. Temperature and color - Hotter stars are blue in color while cooler stars are red. Color indicates temperature. 2. Size - Stars range in size from small white dwarfs to large giants and supergiants. 3. Brightness - Stars have apparent and absolute brightness. Apparent brightness depends on size, temperature, and distance from Earth. The H-R diagram shows the relationship between luminosity and temperature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    97 views15 pages

    Properties of Stars

    Uploaded by

    Sally Custodio
    Stars can be classified by three main properties: 1. Temperature and color - Hotter stars are blue in color while cooler stars are red. Color indicates temperature. 2. Size - Stars range in size from small white dwarfs to large giants and supergiants. 3. Brightness - Stars have apparent and absolute brightness. Apparent brightness depends on size, temperature, and distance from Earth. The H-R diagram shows the relationship between luminosity and temperature.

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    How do we classify stars?

    A.Size

    B.Temperature
    and Color

    C.Brightness
    Temperature and color
     The color of the star is dependent on the temp of the star.
     Red – coolest stars
     Blue – hottest stars

    Stars have Different colors


    which indicate different
    temperatures
     Order from coolest to hottest
     Red, red-orange, yellow, white, blue

    3000K 6000K 30,000K


    Temperature and Color
    Size
    Giants/supergiants- large and very large stars.
    Many of these are very far away
    White dwarfs-
    very small stars –
    about the size of
    the Earth
    Neutron stars-
    even smaller stars
    – only 20 km in
    diameter.
    Medium sized
    stars- many stars
    this size. The size
    of our Sun.
    Binary star systems contain two stars
    that orbit around their common center
    of mass. Many of the stars in our
    galaxy are part of a binary system.

    Binary Stars are


    used to
    determine the
    mass of the star.
    How do we measure stars?
    Parallax- the apparent change in position of
    an object when you look at it from different
    places.
    Parallax

    The closer the star is to Earth, the larger the shift will be
    Parallax

    Only good for measuring stars


    close to us. Not farther than
    1000 light years away. Why?

    The movement would be


    too small to measure
    accurately.
    SPEED OF LIGHT
    Light travels at a speed of
    186,000 miles a second or
    300,000,000 meters per
    second or 700 million
    miles an hour. For scale,
    the distance from the
    Earth to the Moon is
    about 239,000 miles. The
    distance light can travel in
    a year is called a "light
    year." The light year is
    one of the basic measures
    of distance for astronomy.
    Nothing travels faster
    than the speed of light.
    Stellar Brightness=magnitude
    Apparent Brightness- the brightness
    as seen from Earth.
    The closer the star is to Earth, the
    brighter it will look.
    3 factors that control:
    1. How big it is
    2. How hot it is
    3. How far away it is
    Absolute Brightness – the amount
    of light the star actually gives
    off.

    2 stars with the


    same absolute
    magnitude do not
    have the same
    apparent
    H-R Diagram-
    diagram
    showing the
    relationship
    between absolute
    magnitude/luminosit
    y and temperature
    of the star
    *Temperature on the x axis
    *Luminosity/ absolute brightness
    on the y axis
    H-R Diagram What kind of stars
    are cooler than,
    (sketch this) but brighter than
    the sun?
    RED GIANTS

    What kind of
    stars are bluer
    than the sun but
    less bright & must
    be quite small?
    WHITE DWARFS
    Variable Stars
     Cepheid variables - pulsate
    in a regular way, rapidly
    increasing in brightness as
    they increase in size, then
    slowly decreasing in
    brightness as they decrease
    in size. The reason for this
    is slight instabilities in
    temperature and density

     Nova – sudden brightening


    of a star
    Interstellar Matter
     Between stars there are clouds of dust and
    gasses = nebulae (Greek for cloud)

    •If not close to a star looks like a dark starless region

    •If next to a bright star it will light up and glow

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