MEASURING TEMPERATURES FOR STARS I

figure42

Cooler objects will have redder colors. To the extent that Stellar spectra look like blackbodies, the temperature of a star can also be measured amazingly accurately by recording the brightness in two different filters.

figure51

It turns out that colors can still be used to measure stellar temperatures, the relationship between color and surface temperature is just a little more complicated and needs to be calibrated using computer models.


Michael Bolte
Thu Jan 15 10:22:36 PST 1998