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Hertzsprung, Ejnar

(Encyclopedia)Hertzsprung, Ejnar īˈnär hĕrtsˈspro͞ong [key], 1873–1967, Danish astronomer. Although trained as a chemical engineer, Hertzsprung made his career in astronomy, specializing in exacting photogr...

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

(Encyclopedia)CE5 The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram shows the relation between the luminosity and surface temperature (which is related to spectral class, or color) of the stars in the Milky Way. Most stars fall a...

Russell, Henry Norris

(Encyclopedia)Russell, Henry Norris, 1877–1957, American astronomer, b. Oyster Bay, N.Y., grad. Princeton, 1897. In 1902 he went to Cambridge, England, to study. He returned to Princeton in 1905, was professor of...

mass-luminosity relation

(Encyclopedia)mass-luminosity relation, in astronomy, law stating that the luminosity of a star is proportional to some power of the mass of the star. More massive stars are in general more luminous. For stars on t...

Barnard's star

(Encyclopedia)Barnard's star, star with the largest observed proper motion (rate of motion across the sky with respect to other stars); located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The star's large proper motion, 10.28â...

red giant

(Encyclopedia)red giant, star that is relatively cool but very luminous because of its great size. All normal stars are expected to pass eventually through a red-giant phase as a consequence of stellar evolution. A...

spectral class

(Encyclopedia)CE5 spectral class, in astronomy, a classification of the stars by their spectrum and luminosity. In 1885, E. C. Pickering began the first extensive attempt to classify the stars spectroscopically....

stellar populations

(Encyclopedia)stellar populations, two broadly contrasting distributions of star types that are characteristic of different parts of a galaxy. Population I stars are young, recently formed stars, whereas population...

parallax

(Encyclopedia)CE5 The trigonometric parallax of a star, expressed by the angle θ, is a measure of its apparent motion against the background of more distant stars as a result of the earth's motions in its orbit...

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