Now that you know what the lines mean and how to identify them, try classifying stars based on the
"strength" of their hydrogen absorption lines, specifically the Hα line. The spectrum below is the same
spectrum as from Question 5, again with a zoom-in of the spectrum's H-alpha line shown below it.
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Notice that the Hα absorption line dips down vertically, but it is not a straight drop; the line has some width.
The two triangles in the zoom-in mark two spots on the continuum spectrum. If you drew a line between the two triangles, you
would see approximately how much light would have been emitted by the star if it had no hydrogen.
If you colored in the area between that line and the actual spectrum, you would see the amount of hydrogen "missing" from
the spectrum due to hydrogen absorption. This amount is referred to as the strength of the
absorption line. The strength of an absorption line depends not only on the depth of the valley, but also on its width.
Explore 2.
Look at the spectra of these seven stars (the page will open in a new window). You
can also see the seven stars as a FlashPaper File (requires free
Flash Player) or as a PDF (requires free Adobe Reader).
Using the spectra, rank the seven stars according to the strength of their Hα absorption lines. If you have a hard time judging by
eye, color in the area between the line connecting the triangles and the spectrum, then count the number of grid boxes to measure the line strength.
Rank the stars by writing each star number in the appropriate place in the second column of the table below.
Line Strength |
Star Number |
Spectral Type |
Strongest line (greatest line area) |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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Weakest line (least line area) |
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Explore 3. Originally, astronomers classified those stars with the strongest hydrogen lines as 'A' stars, stars with the next strongest
lines as 'B' stars, the next strongest 'C' and so on. Eventually, they realized that some letters were unnecessary, and dropped
them from the classification system. The letter assigned to a star is called its spectral class.
The spectral classes that remain are: A,B,F,G,K,M and O. In the third column of the table from Explore 2, write the spectral class of each star in the table. There is
only one star of each type in this data.
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