Introduction
The Hertzspring Russel diagram (H-R diagram) is a graph that shows the relationship between the absolute magnitudes and spectral classes of stars; magnitude being the perceived brightness of the star. The standard H-R diagram looks a bit like this
Results
A) Orion stars are very similar to the H-R diagram provided. A majority of stars lie on the main sequence. Some differences include the presence of supergiants, giants, and white dwarfs. This H-R diagram is very normal, showing the age of Orion to be a relatively new nebula, in millions of years since most extremely large and hot stars still lie on the main sequence.
1 – The luminosities and surface temperatures of the Orion Stars are all extremely luminous and hot on average. A majority of the stars on this H-R Diagram are O, B, and A stars. These stars are all have hot surface temperatures, large radii, and are increasingly blue with temperature. These stars are multiple times more massive than our Sun.
2 – The luminosities of these stars compared with that of the Sun are hundreds to thousands of times brighter. Therefore the temperatures of these stars are four to five times as hot as the surface of our Sun.
3 -
Hottest Star #
|
Largest Star #
|
Most Luminous Star
|
8 (Theta 1A)
|
1 (Alpha)
|
2 (Beta)
|
4 -
Surface Temperature #16 (Mu Ori)
|
Radius #28 (Phi 2 Ori)
|
9500K
|
1000R☉
|
5 – Orion’s stars are a distance away. I would imagine they are hundreds to thousands of light years away due to their magnitudes from the data table.
B)
6 – The surface temperatures and luminosities of the nearest stars are on average very dim and consist of cooler stars than that of the Orion stars. Aside from the two stars off the main sequence, all stars lie from an A star to a M star. The majority of stars are G, K, and M stars, which are all yellow to red as absolute magnitude increases, smaller in radius as absolute magnitude increases, and become increasingly dim and cool as absolute magnitude increases.
7 – The Sun’s surface temperature and luminosity fit in on the main sequence of this H-R Diagram. The Sun is almost in the middle of the stars on this H-R Diagram. The Sun is one of the most luminous and hottest out of this data set.
8 -
Lowest Surface Temperature #
|
Smallest Radius #
|
Smallest Luminosity #
|
6 (Wolf 359)
|
9 (Sirius B)
|
6 (Wolf 359)
|
9 – Some of these stars can easily be seen, and are the brightest in our night sky due to the close proximity of them. A majority of these stars are very dim and small, with little luminosity. With a telescope that has enough light gathering power, all of these stars could be seen.
10 – The nearest stars would be far more common than Orion’s stars. Almost all of Orion’s stars are new stars that are extremely hot and luminous. After time though, these stars die leaving behind smaller and less dim stars. Since our universe has been around for 13.6 billion years, smaller and less luminous stars should be far more common.
11 – The point of this lab was to see real data and apply to H-R diagrams that we made ourselves, and then be able to interpret the data we gathered from the lab.
12 – Orion is a young star system, our nearest stars are all relatively small and dim compared to our Sun, and our nearest stars are almost all still on the main sequence.
Conclusion
The H-R diagram is very useful when evaluating star clusters. It relates magnitude and spectral class in a way that can grant a great deal of more useful information about individual stars, like temperature and solar radius. The H-R diagram is probably singly the most useful tool in an astronomer's belt as it grants s much useful information in such a small area.
