Hertzsprung–Russell diagram

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/hertzsprungrussell-diagram

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the independent discoverers?Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell
2. What is the primary axes?Effective Temperature (horizontal) and Luminosity/Absolute Magnitude (vertical)
3. Why do stars appear in different spots on the diagram?Because a star’s brightness and heat depend on its mass, age, and what’s inside it.
4. How does the diagram show a star's life stage?The diagram shows where stars start, grow, and shrink as they use up their fuel.

Stellar Evolution: The entire process of a star's life, from formation through its various stages to its eventual end.
Absolute Magnitude: The intrinsic brightness of a celestial object, measured as if it were at a standard distance of 10 parsecs.
Spectral Type: A classification of stars based on their temperature, indicated by letters like O, B, A, F, G, K, M.
Main Sequence: The longest phase of a star's life, where it fuses hydrogen into helium in its core, represented by a diagonal band on the H-R diagram.