INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this lab is to have you identify the main characteristics used to classify stars, and the five main types of stars. You will also become familiar with the use of the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram used for the classification of stars. You can download the lab handout here.

STEP #1

Tap on the name of each star below to see the star's temperature and luminosity. Plot the characteristics of each star on the chart on your handout. Be sure to label each star’s name next to its data point on the chart. If for some reason the buttons below are not working, you can access a table of the data here and a table of the colors and temperatures here.

Rigel

STEP #2

The color that a star appears is based upon its temperature. Using the data below, color in the spaces provided at the bottom of your graph to represent the star colors for the given temperatures.

Stars that have a temperature between 2,000 - 3,000 K will glow red.
Stars that have a temperature between 3,000 - 4,000 K will glow orange.
Stars that have a temperature between 4,000 - 6,000 K will glow yellow.
Stars that have a temperature between 6,000 - 10,000 K will glow white.
Stars that have a temperature between 10,000 - 20,000 K will glow blue-white.
Stars that have a temperature between 20,000 - 30,000 K will glow blue.