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What does the color of a star relate to?
Stars emit colors of many different wavelengths, but the wavelength of light where a star’s emission is concentrated is related to the star’s temperature – the hotter the star, the more blue it is; the cooler the star, the more red it is.
What determines the age of a star?
Essentially, astronomers determine the age of stars by observing their spectrum, luminosity and motion through space. They use this information to get a star’s profile, and then they compare the star to models that show what stars should look like at various points of their evolution.
STAR COLOR DEPENDS ON TEMPERATURE, WITH RED BEING THE COOLEST – AND BLUE BEING THE HOTTEST STARS.
How are ages of star clusters determined?
As a cluster ages, the mass of the main-sequence turnoff stars decreases. By determining the mass of the main-sequence turnoff stars, we get the age of the cluster. The cluster age equals the main-sequence lifetime of the turnoff stars.
Are all stars the same age?
“Astronomers usually cannot tell the age of an individual star. There are certain stars that we know are very young, and others that are very old, but for most stars we cannot tell. This is possible because all of the stars in a cluster are presumed to have begun their life at approximately the same time.
How old is a blue star?
“Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547’s stars range from 20 to 35 million years old,” officials from the ESO wrote in a statement. “That doesn’t sound all that young, after all.
What color is an old star?
As stars age, they run out of hydrogen to burn, decreasing the amount of energy they emit. Thus, younger stars can appear bluer while older ones appear more red, and in this way, a star’s color can tell us something about that star’s age.
The surface temperature of a star determines the color of light it emits. Blue stars are hotter than yellow stars, which are hotter than red stars. Remember that magnitudes decrease with increasing brightness, so if B – V is small, the star is bluer (and hotter) than if B – V is large.
What does a star’s color tell us about its temperature?
The color of a star mostly indicates a star’s temperature, and it can also suggest the star’s age. Class O stars, which are blue in color, are the hottest, and class M stars, which are red in color, are the coldest. The hotter the star, the faster its particles move and the more energy they radiate.
How does star color relate to mass?
The mass and luminosity of a star also relate to its color. More massive stars are hotter and bluer, while less massive stars are cooler and have a reddish appearance. The sun falls in between the spectrum, given it a more yellowish appearance.