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For example, a magnitude 2.0 star is 2.512 times as bright as a magnitude 3.0 star, 6.31 times as magnitude 4.0, and 100 times magnitude 7.0. The brightest astronomical objects have negative apparent magnitudes: for example, Venus at −4.2 or Sirius at −1.46.
For example, Betelgeuse has the K-band apparent magnitude of −4.05. [5] Some stars, like Betelgeuse and Antares, are variable stars, changing their magnitude over days, months or years. In the table, the range of variation is indicated with the symbol "var". Single magnitude values quoted for variable stars come from a variety of sources.
Consequently, a magnitude 1 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 2 star, about 2.5 2 times brighter than a magnitude 3 star, about 2.5 3 times brighter than a magnitude 4 star, and so on. This is the modern magnitude system, which measures the brightness, not the apparent size, of stars.
[4] [5] Absolute magnitudes of stars generally range from approximately −10 to +20. The absolute magnitudes of galaxies can be much lower (brighter). For example, the giant elliptical galaxy M87 has an absolute magnitude of −22 (i.e. as bright as about
For example, 3C 273 has an average apparent magnitude of 12.8 (when observing with a telescope), but an absolute magnitude of −26.7. If this object were 10 parsecs away from Earth it would appear nearly as bright in the sky as the Sun (apparent magnitude −26.744).
This list of nearest bright stars is a table of stars found within 15 parsecs (48.9 light-years) of the nearest star, the Sun, that have an absolute magnitude of +8.5 or brighter, which is approximately comparable to a listing of stars more luminous than a red dwarf. Right ascension and declination coordinates are for the epoch J2000.
So far, 131 such objects have been found. Only 22 are bright enough to be visible without a telescope, for which the star's visible light needs to reach or exceed the dimmest brightness visible to the naked eye from Earth, 6.5 apparent magnitude. [1] The known 131 objects are bound in 94 stellar systems.
For example, it omits Gliese 710 which in about 1.35 million years is expected to be close enough to have a magnitude of −2.7, [2] as confirmed by the Gaia spacecraft. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Star