Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly BodiesTodd, David P. (David Peck)
History
Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly Bodies
Todd, David P. (David Peck)
Astronomy
Type IV is also characterized by dark bands, often called "flutings,"
similar to those of type III, but reversed as to shading, that is, well
defined on the side toward the red, but fading out toward the blue.
Their atmospheres contain carbon; but they are not abundant, besides
being faint and nearly all blood-red in tint.
Following up the brilliant researches of Draper, who in 1872 obtained
the first successful photograph of a star's spectrum, that of Vega,
Pickering of Harvard supplemented Secchi's classification by Type V, a
spectrum characterized by bright lines. They, too, are not abundant and
are all found near the middle of the Galaxy. These are usually known as
Wolf-Rayet stars, from the two Paris astronomers who first investigated
their spectra. Type V stars are a class of objects seemingly apart from
the rest of the stellar universe, and many of the planetary nebulæ yield
the same sort of a spectrum.
The late Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, widow of Dr. Henry Draper, established
the Henry Draper Memorial at Harvard, and investigation of the
photographic spectra of all the brighter stars of the entire heavens has
been prosecuted on a comprehensive scale, those of the northern
hemisphere at Cambridge, and of the southern at Arequipa, Peru. These
researches have led to a broad reclassification of the stars into eight
distinct groups, a work of exceptional magnitude begun by the late Mrs.
Fleming and recently completed by Miss Annie Cannon, who classified the
photographic spectra of more than 230,000 stars on the new system, as
follows:--
The letters O, B, A, F, G, K, M, N represent a continuous gradation in
the supposed order of stellar evolution, and farther subdivision is
indicated by tenths, G5K meaning a type half way between G and K, and
usually written G5 simply. B2 would indicate a type between B and A, but
nearer to B than A, and so on. On this system, the spectrum of a star in
the earliest stages of its evolution is made up of diffuse bright bands
on a faint continuous background. As these bands become fewer and
narrower, very faint absorption lines begin to appear, first the helium
lines, followed by several series of hydrogen lines. On the
disappearance of the bright bands, the spectrum becomes wholly
absorptive bands and lines. Then comes a very great increase in
intensity of the true hydrogen spectrum, with wide and much diffused
lines, and few if any other lines. Then the H and K calcium lines and
other lines peculiar to the sun become more and more intense. Then the
hydrogen lines go through their long decline. The calcium spectrum
becomes intense, and later the spectrum becomes quite like that of the
sun with a great wealth of lines. Following this stage the spectrum
shortens from the ultra violet, the hydrogen lines fade out still
farther, and bands due to metallic compounds make their appearance, the
entire spectrum finally resembling that of sun spots. To designate these
types rather more categorically:--
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