9 - B-type stars

Summary

Normal stars

A B-type star is an object exhibiting neutral helium lines in its spectrum, but no ionized helium lines. The latter are characteristic of O-type stars. Neutral helium lines are invisible in A-type stars. (For illustration, see figure 9.1.)

The maximum strength of the He i lines is reached in early B subclasses, around B2. Hydrogen lines on the other hand have their maximum strength at A2 and therefore along the B-type star sequence hydrogen and helium exhibit an opposite trend. Table 9.1 provides the equivalent widths of the stronger lines, taken from Didelon (1982). All lines of elements other than hydrogen in the region λλ3600–4800 are less intense than 1.3 Å.

Table 9.1 shows that for quantitative classification we can use in principle H and He i line strengths alone. However, the Balmer lines are too intense to use for visual classification and we must look for other, weaker lines in the λλ3600–4800 region. Elements having weaker lines are listed in table 9.2. As can be seen from the table, the number of elements visible diminishes toward later B-types. For stars between B5 and A0 only a few lines are left and so all have to be used for classification. Equivalent widths for most of these lines are given by Didelon (1982).