Harvard classification

/ ˈhɑːvəd /

noun

1. a classification of stars based on the characteristic spectral absorption lines and bands of the chemical elements present See spectral type

Word History and Origins

Origin of Harvard classification¹

C20: named after the observatory at Harvard, Massachusetts, where it was prepared and published as part of The Henry Draper Catalogue (1924)

Example Sentences

Cannon created the Harvard Classification System for classifying stars, which is the basis of the system still in use today.

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In large part the weight of evidence would appear to favor the order of the Harvard classification, independently confirmed as it is by studies of stellar velocities, Galactic distribution, and periods of binary stars both spectroscopic and visual, where Campbell and Aiken find a marked increase in length of period with advance in spectral type.

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Such a scale is indeed implicit in the Harvard classification of the spectra.

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