SPECTRAL ANALYSIS: LINES AND MK SPECTRAL CLASSIFICATION
We have just barely scratched the surface of how astronomers
utilize stellar spectra to reveal the properties of stars.
For the next few lectures we
will investigate how stars produce their spectra and
how information is extracted from stellar spectra. In the left panel above,
a series of stellar spectra are shown from hot stars to cool stars. We can
see immediately that the color of the stars shift from bluish to reddish and
that different series of dark absorption lines appear. We have already
pointed out why the color changes, for the next few lectures we will discuss
why the absorption line patterns differ from star to star. We will cover:
