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CLASSIFYING STARS
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Activity Sheet ESS-5B
Objective: to identify characteristics of stars in order to explain how these characteristics affect a
star’s appearance from Earth.
Astronomy Note: How can you tell stars apart?
Activity 1: Characteristics of Stars?
1. Think about our earlier lessons on classifying matter.
2. Identify characteristics that can be used to tell 2 stars apart.
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3. Which characteristics do you think will be easiest to learn about? Why?
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4. Astronomers classify stars according to physical characteristics. Skim text page 127 to identify 5
characteristics that astronomers use to classify stars.
a. ___________________________________ d. ____________________________________
b. ___________________________________
e. ____________________________________
c. ___________________________________
Activity 2: Exploring Characteristics of Stars
COLOR AND TEMPERATURE (Text Page 127)
5. What does the color of a star indicate about the star? ___________________________________
6. Identify the temperature associated with each color, and include an example of a star that would
appear each color.
Temperature
Example
Red: ___________________________________
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White: ___________________________________
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Blue: ___________________________________
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SIZE (Text Page 127)
7. Stars vary greatly in their sizes. List five sizes of stars from smallest to largest and a fact related
to each type of star.
Star
Fact
a.
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b.
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c.
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d.
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e.
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COMPOSITION (Text Page 128)
8. What are the two main elements found in most stars?
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9. What tool do scientists use to study the composition of stars? ____________________________
BRIGHTNESS (Text Page 128-129)
10. What are the two factors that determine how bright a star actually is?
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11. What are the two factors that determine how bright a star appears from Earth?
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12. HMMM….Are you wondering about anything?
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (Text Page 132-133)
13. On what 2 characteristics is the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram based?
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14. What pattern exists for main sequence stars based upon these two characteristics?
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HOMEWORK: Ditto – Galaxies and Stars