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Characteristics of Stars

Characteristics of Stars. Characteristics of Stars. Constellations are imaginary patterns of stars. Astronomers use these patterns to locate objects in the night sky. Constellations. Although the stars in a constellation look as if they are close to one another, they generally are not.

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Characteristics of Stars

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  1. Characteristics of Stars

  2. Characteristics of Stars • Constellations are imaginary patterns of stars. • Astronomers use these patterns to locate objects in the night sky.

  3. Constellations • Although the stars in a constellation look as if they are close to one another, they generally are not.

  4. The stars in a constellation just happen to lie in the same part of the sky as seen from Earth.

  5. Classifying Stars • All stars: • Are huge spheres of glowing gas • Made up mostly of hydrogen • Produce energy through the process of nuclear fusion

  6. Astronomers classify stars according to their physical characteristics: • Color • Temperature • Size • Composition • Brightness

  7. Color and Temperature • A star’s color reveals its temperature: • Betelgeuse (BAY tul jooz), the bright star in Orion’s shoulder looks reddish.

  8. Orion

  9. Classifying Stars

  10. Star Size • Many stars are actually about the size of the sun, a medium-sized star. • Most stars are much smaller than the sun.

  11. Star Size

  12. Chemical Composition • Chemical composition of most stars: • 73% hydrogen • 25% helium • 2% other elements by mass

  13. Brightness of the Stars • The brightness of a star is the amount of light a star gives off. • Depends on: • Star size • Star temperature

  14. Brightness of the Stars • Betelgeuse: • Is fairly cool • A square meter of its photosphere does not give off much light • Because it is very large, it shines brightly

  15. Brightness of the Stars • Rigel: • Is very hot • Each square meter of its photosphere gives off a lot of light • Even though it is smaller than Betelgeuse, it shines more brightly

  16. Brightness of the Stars • How bright a star looks from Earth depends on: • Its distance from Earth • How bright the star truly is

  17. Apparent Brightness • A star’s apparent brightness is its brightness as seen from Earth. • Apparent brightness is fairly easily measured using electronic devices.

  18. Apparent Brightness • Example: • The sun looks very bright because it is so close. • In reality, the sun is a star of only average brightness.

  19. Absolute Brightness • A star’s absolute brightness is the brightness the star would have if it were at a standard distance from Earth.

  20. Absolute Brightness • In order to calculate a star’s absolute brightness, an astronomer needs: • The star’s apparent brightness • Its distance from Earth

  21. Measuring Distances to Stars • Astronomers use a unit called the light-year to measure distances between the stars. • Light travels at a speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second.

  22. Measuring Distances to Stars • A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year. • The light-year is a unit of distance, not time.

  23. Parallax • Astronomers often use parallax to measure distances to nearby stars. • Parallax is the apparent change in position of an object when you look at it from different places.

  24. Parallax in Astronomy • Astronomers look at a nearby star when Earth is on one side of the sun. • Then they look at the same star again six months later, when Earth is on the opposite side of the sun.

  25. Parallax in Astronomy • Astronomers measure how much the nearby star appears to move against a background of stars that are much farther away.

  26. Parallax in Astronomy • The less a nearby star appears to move, the farther away it is.

  27. Ejnar Hertzsprung (EYE nahr HURT Sprung) in Denmark and Henry Norris Russell in the United States made graphs to find a relationship between temperature and the absolute brightness of stars.

  28. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • They plotted the surface temperatures of stars on the x-axis and their absolute brightness on the y-axis.

  29. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • The points formed a pattern called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, or H-R diagram.

  30. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • Astronomers use H-R diagrams to: • Classify stars • Understand how stars change over time

  31. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • Most of the stars in the H-R diagram form a diagonal area called the main sequence. • Within the main sequence , surface temperature increases as absolute brightness increases.

  32. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • Hot bluish stars are located at the left of an H-R diagram • Cooler reddish stars are located at the right of the diagram.

  33. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • The brightest stars are located near the top of an H-R diagram • The dimmest stars are located at the bottom.

  34. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

  35. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram • Giant and supergiant stars are very bright. • Can be found near the top center and right • White dwarfs are hot, but not very bright • Appear at the bottom loft or bottom center of the diagram

  36. A Star is Born • All stars begin their lives as parts of nebulas. • A nebula is a large cloud of gas and dust spread out in an immense volume.

  37. Starbirth in the Lagoon Nebula

  38. A Star is Born • A star is made up of a large amount of gas in a relatively small volume.

  39. A Star is Born • In the densest part of a nebula, gravity pulls gas and dust together. • A contracting cloud of gas and dust with enough mass to form a star is called a protostar.

  40. Protostar • The Spitzer Space Telescope has pierced thick cosmic dust to reveal this embedded protostar, or embryonic star, in HH46-IR.

  41. A Star is Born • A star is born when the contracting gas and dust from a nebula become so dense and hot that nuclear fusion starts.

  42. A Star is Born • During nuclear fusion, enormous amounts of energy are released.

  43. Lifetimes of Stars • How long a star lives depends on its mass. • Small-mass stars use up their fuel more slowly than large-mass stars, so they have much longer lives.

  44. Star Mass vs. Lifetime

  45. Deaths of Stars • When a star begins to run out of fuel its core shrinks and its outer portion expands. • The star becomes either a red giant or a supergiant.

  46. The Sun as a Red Giant

  47. Deaths of Stars • After a star runs out of fuel, it becomes a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.

  48. White Dwarfs • Low-mass stars and medium-mass stars like the sun take billions of years to use up their nuclear fuel.

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