Does the Sun have a scientific name?
The Sun does not have any scientific name like the names of plants and animals but among the billions of stars, it does fall in a particular category: Stars are classified based on their temperature and their size. Based on their temperature, they are classified into O, B, A, F, G, K and M stars with the O stars being the hottest with temperatures of about 50,000 K and the M stars being the coolest with temperatures of about 3000 K. Each group is subdivided into 10 classes (eg. O0, O1,..., O9, B0, B1,...).
Based on the size and luminosity, the stars are classified into classes Ia, Ib, II, III, IV, and V. Type I stars are supergiant stars, II means giant stars, etc. Finally class V are stars called main-sequence stars which are "normal" stars (that fuse hydrogen in their cores).
Based on this notation, our Sun is a star of spectral class G2 and luminosity class V (main sequence). So, when we can say "scientifically" that the Sun is a G2V star.
Related questions:
More questions about The Sun: Previous | Next
How to ask a question:
If you have a follow-up question concerning the above subject, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.
Main Page | About Us | For Teachers | Astronomy Links | Ask a Question | View a Random Question
URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=155
This page has been accessed 45557 times since August 23, 2002.
Last modified: August 23, 2002 9:57:08 PM
Comments? curious@astro.cornell.edu
Legal questions? See our copyright, disclaimer and privacy policy.
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.
Warning: Your browser is misbehaving! This page might look ugly. (Details)