Enhancement of M51 Image to Extract the Spectral Features for Classification of Stars Using HR Diagram

Abstract

The Hertzsprung Russell (HR) Diagram is one of the most important tools to study stellar evolution and classification. Messier 51 (M51) is a whirlpool galaxy located 25–35 million light years away. It is observed that M51 is a fairly new galaxy, and also highlights the possibility of a black hole (SNe IIb) in the centre of the spiral that could have engulfed the red giants formed from the initial stars in the galaxy. This paper focuses on deriving the spectral features of the star cluster using photometric calculations. The raw image of M51 was obtained from the Hubble Space Archive, and was processed using the Astronomical Tool of IRAF that is used for enhancement of raw images. The photometric data was processed in MATLAB to obtain and observe the HR Diagram of M51, where most of the stars lie in the Main Sequence Region.