Low mass star Discipline: EducationMain Sequence Low mass stars spend billions of years fusing hydrogen to helium in their cores via the proton-proton chain. They usually have a convection zone, and the activity of the convection zone determines if the star has activity similar to the sunspot cycle on our Sun. Some small starsTags: planetary nebulawhite dwarfred gianthydrogen fusiondensity
Stages in a Star's Life Discipline: Education The interactive H-R diagram below and our new Star In A Box app both show the life cycle of a star. The interactive H-R diagram is for a star with the same mass as the Sun, and shows how it forms and where it is on the H-R diagram at various stages of its life. The Star In A Box allows you to choose the initial mass of a star and follow it through its life.Explore the lifecycle of a star similar to the Sun.Tags: planetary nebulacloudprotostarwhite dwarfred giant
H-R Diagram Discipline: EducationHaving the information about spectral types was useful, but astronomers wanted to look for trends in the data. In 1911 Ejnar Hertzsprung plotted the absolute magnitude of stars against their colors. Two years later Henry Norris Russell independently did a similar graph using spectral types. Graphs of this type are known as Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams or H-R diagrams.Tags: starsluminositytemperatureHertzsprungRussellwhite dwarfblue giantsred giantssupergiants
