We've learned so much about how to measure stars now!
We now know that:
- stellar classification is how hot the star gets, and uses letters and colors, like M and red
- absolute magnitude is how bright a star is, and uses numbers from -15 to 20.
- luminosity class is heat and brightness together, and uses numbers and names like I and supergiants.
- Hertzsprung-Russel diagram is like a map for understanding all of those measurements.
Now that we understand all of that, we can understand more about the stars in our universe!
The sun in our solar system has a stellar classification of G (yellow)
and a luminosity class of V (main sequence or dwarf)
So some people call our sun a Yellow Dwarf,
and others call it a GV, but they mean the same thing!
(from: wikipedia - yellow dwarf)
Yellow Dwarf stars are about 9,000 degrees, and burn for 10 billion years!
