Ejnar hertzsprung y henry norris russell

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, abbreviated as H–R diagram, is often considered the most important tool in revealing the relationship between a star's absolute magnitude - or luminosity, verses stellar classification - effective temperature.

In essence colour/temperature plotted against brightness. The development of this diagram led to a far greater understanding of stellar evolution for varied types of stars.

The diagram was created independently in 1911 by Ejnar Hertzsprung and by Henry Norris Russell in 1913.

Ejnar hertzsprung y henry norris russell and the hr diagram

Neither knew of each other’s work, which stemmed from nineteenth century large-scale photographic spectroscopic surveys of stars performed at Harvard College Observatory (see In Focus - May), producing spectral classifications for tens of thousands of stars, culminating in the Henry Draper Catalogue.

In one section of the work, astronomer Antonia Maury included stellar divisions categorized by