Dwarf star

Not to be confused with compact star.

A dwarf star is a star of relatively small size and low luminosity. Most main sequence stars are dwarf stars. The term was originally coined in 1906 when the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung noticed that the reddest stars—classified as K and M in the Harvard scheme could be divided into two distinct groups. They are either much brighter than the Sun, or much fainter. To distinguish these groups, he called them "giant" and "dwarf" stars,[1] the dwarf stars being fainter and the giants being brighter than the Sun. Most stars are currently classified under the Morgan Keenan System using the letters O, B, A, F, G, K, and M, a sequence from the hottest: O type, to the coolest: M type. The scope of the term "dwarf" was later expanded to include the following:

See also

References

  1. Brown, Laurie M.; Pais, Abraham; Pippard, A. B., eds. (1995). Twentieth Century Physics. Bristol; New York: Institute of Physics, American Institute of Physics. p. 1696. ISBN 0-7503-0310-7. OCLC 33102501.
  2. Nazé, Y. (November 2009). "Hot stars observed by XMM-Newton. I. The catalog and the properties of OB stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 506 (2): 1055–1064. arXiv:0908.1461Freely accessible. Bibcode:2009A&A...506.1055N. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200912659.
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