main sequence

distinctive band of stars on Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams

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The main sequence is a distinctive band of stars that appears on diagrams plotting stellar brightness against temperature, representing stars that are actively fusing hydrogen in their cores. Most stars, including our Sun, spend the majority of their lifetimes on the main sequence, making it the most important stage in a star's life cycle.

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Commons category: Main-sequence stars

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A Hertzsprung–Russell diagram plots the luminosity (or absolute magnitude) of a star against its color index (represented as B−V). The main sequence is visible as a prominent diagonal band from upper left to lower right. This plot shows 22,000 stars from the Hipparcos Catalog together with 1,000 low-luminosity stars (red and white dwarfs) from the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars.

In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color versus brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars spend the majority of their lives on the main sequence, during which core hydrogen burning is dominant. These main-sequence stars, or sometimes interchangeably dwarf stars, are the most numerous true stars in the universe and include the Sun. Color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell.