Introduction to Stellar

Physics
Observational properties of stars

Stars

Most of the objects visible with the naked eye in the

night sky are stars. Like our Sun, they are large balls of
hot gas, powered by nuclear fusion within their depths.

Stellar distances
Even the nearest stars are not that near. Their
distances can be found by triangulation, a method
known as parallax.
Because of the Earths motion around the Sun,
the apparent position of nearby stars moves with
respect to distant ones. The amount they move
depends on their distance from the Earth.

Animation of apparent motion on sky of young star T Tauri S

http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/starfmparallax/

Parallaxes
Even for the nearest stars the parallaxes are very
small indeed, less than one arcsecond.
A parsec is the distance at which an object would
have a parallax of one arcsecond. From the radius
of the Earths orbit, it can be shown that ...

One parsec = 3.086 x 1016 metres = 3.26 light years

To work this out, you have to figure out how
far away a star has to be so that the size of the
Earths orbit appears to be one arcsecond.

Stellar aberration
Parallax is not to be confused
with stellar aberration. This
is caused by the movement of
the Earth, which means that
objects are actually not in the
direction the telescope is
pointing!!
Stellar aberration is typically
greater than the parallax and it
must be carefully subtracted
before parallaxes can be
measured.

Stellar motions

Stellar motions
Although stars do have measurable motions, very few move
perceptibly on human timescales. The one which moves the
most is Barnards star, which moves 10 arcseconds per year.
1950

1997

Properties of stars
Many of the differences in appearance of different stars
are due to their being at different distances from us.
Once we know their distances we can correct for that and
begin to compare their properties fairly.

Fundamental properties

Brightness

Colour

Apparent brightness
Long ago Hipparchus invented the magnitude scale, which
divided stars into 6 classes, the brightest called 1st magnitude
and the faintest 6th magnitude.
Astronomers have standardised his system, so that 5
magnitudes corresponds to a difference in brightness of a
factor 100.
The scale is logarithmic, meaning each magnitude
corresponds to a ratio of flux. Annoyingly the factor is 2.512,
i.e. a 4th magnitude star is 2.512 times brighter than a 5th
magnitude star.
2.512 x 2.512 x 2.512 x 2.512 x 2.512 = 100

Apparent brightness
Nowadays apparent magnitudes can refer to light at
different wavelengths, and the range has been greatly
expanded both to allow brighter objects and fainter ones.
Sun
Moon

-26.5
-12.5

Sirius (brightest star)

Naked eye limit
Binocular limit

-1.5
6.5
10

4-metre telescope limit

26

Note that the bigger the magnitude, the fainter the object.

True brightness
The absolute magnitude is a measure of the true
brightness of a star.
By convention, the absolute magnitude is the brightness that
the star would have if it was at a distance of 10 parsecs.

Almost all stars are further than 10 parsecs, so their absolute

magnitude is brighter than their apparent magnitude.

Colour and temperature

Although the human eye has difficulty seeing it, stars have
colours. The colours are an indication of the temperature of
the stars.
Hot stars are blue-white in colour, while cool ones are red.

Colour index
One way of defining colour is to compare the brightness of
the star at two different wavelengths, eg blue and green.
This ratio is a measure of the colour and is known as the
colour index of the star.
The colour indicates the temperature, and is used as the
basis for the stellar classification, which orders stars (from
hot to cold) into classes as

O B A F G K M

Spectral class

Colour

Temperature (K)

O
B
A
F
G
K
M

Violet

> 28,000

Blue

10,000 to 28,000

Blue

7,500 to 10,000

Blue - white

6,000 to 7,500

White - yellow

5,000 to 6,000

Orange - red

3,500 to 5000

Red

< 3,500