Key Terms

By Formative Library

Last updated over 2 years ago

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binary stars
two stars that revolve about each other

brown dwarf
an object intermediate in size between a planet and a star; the approximate mass range is from about 1/100 of the mass of the Sun up to the lower mass limit for self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which is about 1/12 the mass of the Sun

eclipsing binary
a binary star in which the plane of revolution of the two stars is nearly edge-on to our line of sight, so that the light of one star is periodically diminished by the other passing in front of it

H–R diagram
(Hertzsprung–Russell diagram) a plot of luminosity against surface temperature (or spectral type) for a group of stars

main sequence
a sequence of stars on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, containing the majority of stars, that runs diagonally from the upper left to the lower right

mass-luminosity relation
the observed relation between the masses and luminosities of many (90% of all) stars

selection effect
the selection of sample data in a nonrandom way, causing the sample data to be unrepresentative of the entire data set

spectroscopic binary
a binary star in which the components are not resolved but whose binary nature is indicated by periodic variations in radial velocity, indicating orbital motion

visual binary
a binary star in which the two components are telescopically resolved

white dwarf
a low-mass star that has exhausted most or all of its nuclear fuel and has collapsed to a very small size; such a star is near its final state of life

Please take the time to check out the source for this material from Openstax if you plan to use this in your lesson plan!: https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/18-key-terms