Spectral Class
Parts of a star
Star Type
Life cycle of
a star
Vocabulary
100

Class has the lowest temperature

What is M?

100

Wide, outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere

What is the Corona?

100

A graph that plots luminosity vs. the temperature of stars.

What is the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) Diagram?

100

Stars form deep inside clouds of dust and gas.

What is a nebula?

100

Star collapses, releases energy, and swells into a red giant.

What is a Red giant/supergiant?

200

Class is a Blue-white star

What is Class B?

200

Shell of cooler hydrogen above a star’s core

What is the Radiative Zone?

200

Measured on the X and Y axis

What is Y-Axis = increasing luminosity / X-Axis = decreasing temperature?

200

Protostar will pull in surrounding gas until their core is hot and dense enough for ____________ _____________to begin.

What is nuclear fusion?

200

Helium in core is gone and star casts off its gases.

What is a Planetary Nebula?

300

The temperature of a Red star class M.

What is Lowest temperature/ <3500?

300

The apparent surface of a star.

What is the Photosphere?

300

· Star that fuses hydrogen and helium in its core · Hot, bright stars in upper left to cool, dim stars in lower right

What is the Main Sequence? 

300

A star becomes a ______________________ as soon as it begins to fuse hydrogen into helium in its core.

What is a main sequence star?

300

Area in space that is so dense that nothing, including light, can escape is gravitational pull.

What is a Black Hole?

400

The class of our Sun

What is G?

400

The orange-red layer above the photosphere.

What is the Chromosphere?

400

· Core of giant star no longer supports fusion · Bottom left of HR diagram

What are dwarf stars?

400

Gravity causes the densest part to collapse, forming a_________, a cloud of gas and dust in space that develops into a star.

What is a protostar?

400

Remaining hot, dense core after outer layers are gone.

What is a White Dwarf?

500

On the Morgan-Keenan System, what two things are related?

Color and temperature

500

Above the radiative zone, where hot gas moves up toward the surface and cooler agas moves deeper into the interior.

What is the Convection Zone?

500

· Much larger radius and luminosity · Top right in HR diagram

What are giant and supergiants?

500

3 Things very massive stars can turn into.

What is Red supergiant, supernova or black hole?

500

Enormous explosion that destroys a star; AKA star death.

What is a Supernova?