So in the astrophysics textbook by Carrol and Ostlie, when the luminosity class is discussed, it has such a sentence "The ratio of the strengths of two closely spaced lines is often employed to place a star in the appropriate luminosity class. " I'm not exactly sure what this means. Wouldn't the two lines both be broadened in the lower luminosity class? So why would the ratio give us any indication of any broadening?
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1$\begingroup$ Luminosity roughly means "brightness", nothing to do with broadening. Welcome ABC. Do you think this might be more suited to our Astronomy site perhaps? You may certainly get an answer here, but doing some basic research and then editing the question would help a lot as we encourage self-learning. Looking up: "emission lines" and see how they relate to particular elements might be a good starting point. $\endgroup$– Jiminy Cricket.Commented Feb 21, 2023 at 4:32
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$\begingroup$ What I'm suggesting is that you're conflating two different things. The classification of luminosity and class by "brightness and colour" (luminosity, relative strength of spectral lines) and broadening of spectral lines which is to do with stellar rotation-generated phenomena. Clarification would be better sought on Astronomy if you've a question about the classification system, but you can ask about the broadening separately if you wish, but getting the distinction clear in your mind first would be helpful. $\endgroup$– Jiminy Cricket.Commented Feb 23, 2023 at 4:21
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