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  2. Magnitude (astronomy) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitude_(astronomy)

    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.

  3. List of brightest natural objects in the sky - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_natural...

    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 ...

  4. Apparent magnitude - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude

    The magnitude scale likely dates to before the ancient Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, whose star catalog popularized the system by listing stars from 1st magnitude (brightest) to 6th magnitude (dimmest). [1] The modern scale was mathematically defined to closely match this historical system by Norman Pogson in 1856.

  5. List of brightest stars - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars

    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]

  6. Absolute magnitude - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_magnitude

    An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it were viewed from a distance of exactly 10 parsecs (32.6 light-years), without extinction (or dimming) of its light due to absorption by interstellar matter and cosmic dust. By hypothetically placing all objects at a standard ...

  7. Astronomers find what may be the universe's brightest object ...

    www.aol.com/news/astronomers-may-universes...

    Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar with a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day. The black hole ...

  8. The 'brightest comet of 2025 so far' is orbiting the sun ...

    www.aol.com/news/brightest-comet-2025-far...

    The comet, known as C/2024 G3 or ATLAS, could be the brightest of 2025, but it’s too early to tell, said Bill Cooke, lead of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Meteoroid ...

  9. Luminosity - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminosity

    The apparent magnitude is the observed visible brightness from Earth which depends on the distance of the object. The absolute magnitude is the apparent magnitude at a distance of 10 pc (3.1 × 10 17 m), therefore the bolometric absolute magnitude is a logarithmic measure of the bolometric luminosity. The difference in bolometric magnitude ...