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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]
The Sun is by far the brightest object in the Earth's sky, with an apparent magnitude of −26.74. [33] [34] This is about 13 billion times brighter than the next brightest star, Sirius, which has an apparent magnitude of −1.46. [35]
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 ...
seen from Earth Combined magnitude (3rd brightest star in night sky) −0.04: star Arcturus: seen from Earth 4th brightest star to the naked eye [47] −0.01: star Alpha Centauri A: seen from Earth 4th brightest individual star visible telescopically in the night sky +0.03: star Vega: seen from Earth originally chosen as a definition of the ...
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.
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 quasar's luminosity is, therefore, about 2 trillion (10 12) times that of the Sun, or about 100 times that of the total light of average large galaxies like our Milky Way. (Note that quasars often vary ...
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 ...
The Earth-observed angular diameter of Betelgeuse is exceeded only by those of R Doradus and the Sun. Starting in October 2019, Betelgeuse began to dim noticeably, and by mid-February 2020 its brightness had dropped by a factor of approximately 3, from magnitude 0.5 to 1.7.