Steps toward the Hertsprung–Russell Diagram

MAR 01, 1978

In the late nineteenth century, astronomers seeking to classify stars by their spectra using then‐current concepts of stellar evolution found a temperature–luminosity plot that revolutionized the subject.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2994966

David H. DeVorkin

Every student of stellar astronomy encounters the fundamental relationship expressed by the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram. One cannot effectively discuss stars—how they are born, live and die, how they are distributed in space and how our Sun fits amongst them—without using this relationship as a fundamental tool of communication.

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References

1. See: D. H. DeVorkin, “The Origins of the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram” in In Memory of Henry Norris Russell, A. G. Davis‐Philip, D. H. DeVorkin, eds. (Dudley Observatory Report No. 13, Proceedings of IAU Symposium 80, 1977).
This book includes recollections of Russell’s scientific life by his students, colleagues and historians. For general background information on the topics discussed in this paper see: B. Z. Jones, L. G. Boyd, The Harvard College Observatory, Harvard (1971);
A. V. Nielsen, “The History of the HR Diagram” Centaurus 9 (1963), page 219;
D. Hermann, “Ejnar Hertzsprung—‘Zur Strahlung der Sterne’” Ostwalds Klassiker no. 255, Leipzig (1976);
O. Struve, V. Zebergs, Astronomy of the 20th Century, Macmillan (1962).
2. See: A. J. Meadows, Science and Controversy—A Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer, MIT (1972).
3. See: S. Chandrasekhar, Stellar Structure, Dover (1957), pages 176–179.
4. See: Nielsen, ref. 1.
5. Letter, Hertzsprung to Pickering (22 July 1908) Harvard Archives, E. C. Pickering Collection.
6. Letter, Hertzsprung to Pickering (17 August 1908) Harvard.
7. Letter, E. Hertzsprung to K. Schwarzschild (26 August 1908) Schwarzschild Papers Microfilm, American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library.
8. See: Jones and Boyd, ref. 1.
9. Letter, E. C. Pickering to H. N. Russell (22 April 1908) Princeton University Library, Henry Norris Russell Papers.
10. Letter, H. N. Russell to E. C. Pickering (24 September 1909) Harvard.
11. Nielsen, ref. 1, page 241.
12. For an excellent review of the history of the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram since its discovery see: B. W. Sitterly, “Changing Interpretations of the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram, 1910–1940: A Historical Note,” in Vistas in Astronomy 12, Pergamon (1970), page 357.https://doi.org/VASTA6

More about the authors

David H. DeVorkin, American Institute of Physics.