Effective temperature

The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature when the body's emissivity curve (as a function of wavelength) is not known. When the star's or planet's net emissivity in the relevant wavelength band is less than unity (less than that of a black body), the actual temperature of the body will be higher than the effective temperature. The net emissivity may be low due to surface or atmospheric properties, including greenhouse effect. The effective temperature of a star is the temperature of a black body with the same luminosity per surface area (FBol) as the star and is defined according to the Stefan–Boltzmann law FBol = σTeff4. Notice that the total (bolometric) luminosity of a star is then L = 4πR2σTeff4, where R is the stellar radius. The definition of the stellar radius is obviously not straightforward. More rigorously the effective temperature corresponds to the temperature at the radius that is defined by a certain value of the Rosseland optical depth (usually 1) within the stellar atmosphere. The effective temperature and the bolometric luminosity are the two fundamental physical parameters needed to place a star on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Both effective temperature and bolometric luminosity depend on the chemical composition of a star. The effective temperature of the Sun is around 5,780K. The nominal value defined by the International Astronomical Union for use as a unit of measure of temperature is 5,772K. Stars have a decreasing temperature gradient, going from their central core up to the atmosphere. The "core temperature" of the Sun—the temperature at the centre of the Sun where nuclear reactions take place—is estimated to be 15,000,000 K. The color index of a star indicates its temperature from the very cool—by stellar standards—red M stars that radiate heavily in the infrared to the very hot blue O stars that radiate largely in the ultraviolet.