An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The path in the → H-R diagram that continuously → accreting stars follow. Stars on the birthline are difficult to observe, because they are hidden by the → accretion disk and a dense → cocoon of → interstellar matter. The star becomes visible once a sufficient amount of the surrounding matter has been dispersed. It follows that the young starsare observed generally between the birthline and the → zero-age main sequence (ZAMS). Before hydrogen ignition, gravitational contraction and deuterium burning are the main energy sources for the star. The localization of the birthline depends on the deuterium → accretion rate.
First introduced by R. Behrend & A. Maeder, 2001 (A&A 373, 190).

See also: → birth; → line.