Abstract
In 1913 Henry N. Russell revealed to the astronomical community a diagram that would revolutionize stellar astronomy. He had plotted the absolute magnitude of field stars with measured trigonometric parallaxes versus their Harvard spectrum class. Russell thereupon delineated the main sequence and red giant regions of what is now known as a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, which in turn lead him to propose his giant-to-dwarf theory of stellar evolution.
The main objective of this paper is to assess whether it might have been possible in the late-nineteenth century to have discovered an early version of the Russell diagram. What could have been a forerunner to a Russell diagram has been constructed through the use of parallax, apparent magnitude, and spectrum classification data available in 1899. It is concluded that had such a diagram been produced it could realistically have verified the existence of Russell’s dwarf and giant stars. Furthermore, with the admitted benefit of hindsight and a judicious choice of the highest quality parallaxes, the circa-1899 data are consistent with the recognition of a main sequence locus that is adjoined at mid-point by a rather unstructured ensemble of giant stars. However, the recognition of supergiant stars with distinctly higher luminosities than the red or yellow giants would not likely have been forthcoming, due to the inability of parallax methods of the later 19th-century to reliably measure trigonometric parallaxes smaller than one-tenth of an arcsecond.
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This research has made use of the WEBDA database, operated at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of the Masaryk University. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System. We thank the reviewer for suggestions and comments on the manuscript.
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Smith, G.H. A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for the nineteenth century. Astrophys Space Sci 366, 116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-021-04024-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-021-04024-3