18: The Stars - A Celestial Census Flashcards
two stars that revolve about each other, bounded by gravity
binary stars
a binary star in which the plane of revolution of the two stars is nearly edge-on to our line of sight, so that the light of one star is periodically diminished by the other passing in front of it
eclipsing binary
a plot of luminosity against surface temperature (or spectral type) for a group of stars
Hertzsprung–Russell (H-R) diagram
a sequence of stars on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, containing the majority of stars, that runs diagonally from the upper left to the lower right
main sequence
the observed relation between the masses and luminosities of many (90% of all) stars
mass-luminosity relation
the selection of sample data in a nonrandom way, causing the sample data to be unrepresentative of the entire data set
selection effect
a star that appears as a single star when photographed or observed through a telescope but which spectroscopy shows to really be a double star
spectroscopic binary
a binary star in which both of the components can be seen through a telescope
visual binary
a low-mass star that has exhausted most or all of its nuclear fuel and has collapsed to a very small size - such a star is near its final state of life
white dwarf
a pair of stars that appear close together in the sky but do not orbit each other
optical double
the point between the gravitational forces of two stars on each other that they orbit around
center of mass
