Stars are only points of light in the sky. We cannot see how big they are, nor a

Question

Stars are only points of light in the sky. We cannot see how big they are, nor any surface features that might indicate they are Sun-like. Discuss the many observations that we can make that tell us what stars are. These observations might include distance, various color and spectrum measurements, orbital measurements of binary stars, and/or stellar eclipses, among others. The fundamental properties of stars as observable objects are mass, radius, luminosity, surface temperature, element composition, and rotation, as well as distance. How do we determine these properties?

Explanation / Answer

Answer -

In order to know about the physical properties of a star following factors are determined -

1. Brightness - it is not a primary property but a combination of luminosity and distance to a star.

2. Distances -it is determined by trigonometric and spectroscopic parallex .this property is crucial to understanding stars because we can use square inverse law and brightness value to determine how much light is radiated away.

3. Luminosity- it is defined as the amount of energy generated in a star and released as electromagnetic energy.

4. Radius -it can be determined From Stephens law.

5. Chemical composition- it is determined from the spectral absorption lines of Stars.

6. Temperature -it can be determined with the help of wiens displacement law but complications requires the understanding of stellar spectral types .

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