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An illustration of light sources from magnitude 1 to 3.5, in 0.5 increments. In astronomy, magnitude is a measure of the brightness of an object, usually in a defined passband. An imprecise but systematic determination of the magnitude of objects was introduced in ancient times by Hipparchus. Magnitude values do not have a unit.
The Sun is the brightest star as viewed from Earth, at −26.78 mag. The second brightest is Sirius at −1.46 mag. For comparison, the brightest non-stellar objects in the Solar System have maximum brightnesses of: the Moon −12.7 mag [1] Venus −4.92 mag; Jupiter −2.94 mag; Mars −2.94 mag; Mercury −2.48 mag; Saturn −0.55 mag [2]
Brightest planet −2.20 [6]: 39 −2.94 [6]: 39 Jupiter: Planet −1.46 Sirius: Binary star system: Brightest night star −0.74 Canopus: Star −0.29 [7] Alpha Centauri AB Binary star system Part of a triple star system with Proxima Centauri: −0.05 Arcturus: Star Brightest Population II star 0.03 −0.02 Vega: Star 0.08 0.03 [8] Capella ...
A star that is magnitude 1.0 is then 100 times as bright as a star of magnitude 5.0. So many different luminosities exist, though, that astronomers now assign negative magnitudes as well, just to ...
The brightest star in Libra, Zubeneschamali is a green-tinged star of magnitude 2.6, 160 (or 185 ± 2) light-years from Earth. Gamma Librae is called Zubenelakrab, which means "the scorpion's claw", completing the suite of names referring to Libra's archaic status. It is an orange giant of magnitude 3.9, 152 light-years from Earth. [3]
The primary is a blue giant of magnitude 4.1, 550 light-years from Earth, and the secondary is of magnitude 8. 38 Gem, a binary star, is also divisible in small amateur telescopes, 84 light-years from Earth. The primary is a white star of magnitude 4.8 and the secondary is a yellow star of magnitude 7.8. [8]
The apparent visual magnitude of +1.85 [2] makes it the brightest object in Sagittarius. Based upon parallax measurements, this star is around 143 light-years (44 parsecs ) from the Sun . Observation
The brightest member is the white giant star Beta Trianguli of apparent magnitude 3.00, [5] lying 127 light-years distant from Earth. [12] It is actually a spectroscopic binary system; the primary is a white star of spectral type A5IV with 3.5 times the mass of the Sun that is beginning to expand and evolve off the main sequence.