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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]
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 ...
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 ...
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 comparison, Sirius has an absolute magnitude of only 1.4, which is still brighter than the Sun, whose absolute visual magnitude is 4.83. The Sun's absolute bolometric magnitude is set arbitrarily, usually at 4.75. [4] [5] Absolute magnitudes of stars generally range from approximately −10 to +20. The absolute magnitudes of galaxies can be ...
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 ...
Fifth brightest star in the night sky. [71] Altair (α Aquilae) 2.01 × 1.57 [104] Twelfth brightest star in the night sky. Sirius (α Canis Majoris A) 1.713 [105] AD The brightest star in the night sky. Rigil Kentaurus (α Centauri A) 1.2175 [106] AD Third brightest star in the night sky. Sun: 1: The largest object in the Solar System.
It has an average apparent magnitude of 12.8 (bright enough to be seen through a medium-size amateur telescope), but it has an absolute magnitude of −26.7. [49] From a distance of about 33 light-years, this object would shine in the sky about as brightly as the Sun.