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Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Named after Ejnar Hertzsprung and H. N. Russell, graph showing the luminosity of a star as a function of its surface temperature.

Source: "Hubble's law" http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec14.html [Date Accessed 1 June 2000]

The luminosity, or absolute magnitude, increases upwards on the vertical axis; the temperature (or some temperature-dependent characteristic such as spectral class or color) decreases to the right on the horizontal axis. It is found that the majority of stars lie on a diagonal band that extends from hot stars of high luminosity in the upper left corner to cool stars of low luminosity in the lower right corner. This band is called the main sequence.

 


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Date Created 1 June 2000
Last Updated 11 June 2000