SED - Spectral Energy Distribution

• by TED91 moderator

  EDIT: Here it is as a blog post by Marc Kuchner

  SED- Spectral Energy Distribution.

  What is it? It's a plot of how bright these objects are as a function of wavelength. You can find them on the Talk page.

  More info here

  I just want to show you a few most frequent examples and how to interpret them.

  If you missing something, feel free to ask or add some more examples.

  Late type stars

  

  AWI0005cm2, AWI0005mue, AWI0005m8k, AWI0005ag0

  More examples

  Early type stars

  

  AWI0006207, AWI00062ka, AWI00062aj, AWI0004y3p

  More examples

  Young Stellar Objects (YSOs)

  Their SED sometimes may look similar to AGNs SED and it's hard to distinguish between them. If you aren't sure which one it is, try to find some informations on SIMBAD or VizieR.

  

  AWI0005wau, AWI0002ddn, AWI0002p0g, AWI0005wal

  More examples

  Saturated stars

  See that point at 3 microns (fourth point from the left)? It's "lower" than it should be. It suggest that this star could be saturated.

  

  AWI0005ywh, AWI0005yuk, AWI0005x81, AWI0005zgc

  Galaxies

  We aren't interested in these objects

  

  AWI00009x3, AWI0000fsq, AWI00062j8, AWI0000an0

  More examples

  Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (QSO and AGN)

  We also aren't interested in these objects

  These objects may look as stars to you at first look, because they often appears as a point source of light.
  That's one of the reasons why SED can be useful and help you distinguish between them.

  

  AWI00000t3, AWI00005z0, AWI00001hs, AWI00001m3

  More examples

  Planetary nebulae

  

  AWI0002dbc, AWI0005duo, AWI00006ju, AWI00059t3

  Please note that all of these are just most frequent examples and SEDs may be different from case to case, especially when those objects are somehow contaminated or blended.

  Posted February 27, 2014 4:41 PM

• by jacedjohnson

  Thanks a lot Ted. This is exactly what I was asking about with that post yesterday. SEDs are also not yet my thing, but I'm trying to learn. This will definitely help.

  Posted February 27, 2014 5:09 PM

• by Artman40

  AGN sometimes looks like stars' SED diagrams, except less pronounced and with bigger error bars.

  Posted February 27, 2014 5:38 PM

• by onetimegolfer

  Right on!; TED91 I'm assuming that if it visually looks like a #good-candidate that the SED and SIMBAD take second fiddle for now.

  Posted February 27, 2014 9:37 PM

• by TED91 moderator

  @onetimegolfer You're assuming right. Sometimes if you aren't sure, then SED can help you.

  Posted February 27, 2014 9:56 PM

• by TED91 moderator

  I just edit my post, so there are more examples now.

  Posted April 25, 2014 7:28 PM

• by onetimegolfer

  This is the type of instruction is what is needed on the opening classifying page. A SED of each target. As each new project goes forward a required SED also displayed if its is different than the first proposal we have done. I had forgotten about this post Thanks TED for the update. Although a Blue* is not a good candidate(?) its SED looks like a square root symbol ; I have one listed in my favorites. Now if we had this to distinguish between stars without further investigation.

  Posted April 25, 2014 8:45 PM

• by Shigeru moderator

  Nice work TED!

  Posted April 25, 2014 9:22 PM

• by TED91 moderator

  I just update the post, you can find here more examples now.

  Posted December 23, 2014 1:14 PM

• by Pini2013 translator, moderator in response to TED91's comment.

  Excellent TED!!! I find it really useful.

  Posted December 23, 2014 11:37 PM

• by voyager1682002 moderator

  Thank you for the update TED!

  Posted December 24, 2014 2:55 AM

• by shocko61

  Hi TED91 . shocko61 Ian here .I am new at this , Thankyou for this , it is what I will be referring to for a long time to come . As Pini2013 says Excellent . Cheers , Ian

  Posted March 28, 2015 2:00 AM