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Article: So cool, and some are still stars. (discussion of star classifications)(Astronomy)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- July 4, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Oh, Be a Fine Girl (Guy), Kiss Me."
That line may get your face slapped in a singles bar, but it's an old standby in astronomy textbooks.
In the stellar realm, those words of wisdom are a mnemonic device for the sequence of letters OBAFGKM. Each letter stands for one of the seven standard classes of stars, in order of descending temperature. At birth, O stars rank as the most massive and the hottest, while those in the M class have been thought to be the least massive and the coolest.
After surveying 1 percent of the sky at the near-infrared wavelength of 2 micrometers, researchers report that they have discovered a class of heavenly bodies ...