4 The lifecycles of stars
The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram has so far allowed us to classify the stars according to temperature and luminosity, and has also shown a pattern in the masses of stars, with more massive stars being hotter and more luminous, and smaller stars being relatively cooler and less luminous.
The diagram is also helpful in understanding the lifecycles and evolution of stars. You will start by taking a closer look at the main sequence, which is the central diagonal band running the length of the diagram, and is the part of the diagram occupied by stars in the main, stable part of their lifetime.
OpenLearn - Astronomy with an online telescope
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.
