Gemini hertzsprung russell diagram homework

The HR diagram is a very useful tool for helping understand the differences between the different types of stars and how a star changes throughout its life. It plots spectral class, or temperature on the x-axis and absolute magnitude or luminosity on the y-axis. It is not a graph, in the true sense on the word, and neither axis starts at zero.

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is also useful for comparing two different stars in terms of their size or temperature. For example if two G class stars are observed to have different absolute magnitudes they can be plotted on the HR as below.

The main stripe down the middle of the diagram is called the main sequence, and this is where stars will stay throughout the majority of their lives. The hottest stars are on the left of the diagram, and will, typically be much brighter. The cooler stars are usually dimmer and appear on the right of the main sequence.

Figure 1: A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for the 100 000 closest stars, made with data which is in the public domain. The HR diagram is a very useful tool for helping understand the differences between the different types of stars and how a star changes throughout its life.