If a star you see in the sky is brighter than another is it closer to earth in light year terms?

Answer 1

As between two stars of the same luminosity, the brighter one will be nearer to us,

Sirius is 8.6 light years away with an apparent magnitude of -1.47, Its luminosity = 26.1 x that of the sun

Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away with an apparent magnitude of 11.05. Its luminosity = 5-12 × 10^-5 x that of the sun;

i.e. Proxima is twice as near to us as Sirius is, even though Sirius is about 100,000 brighter than Proxima is,

The reason there is no correlation between brightness and distance is that stars are not all the same age, mass, temperature, size, colour or luminosity as one another.

Answer 2

Not necissarily. A star can be brighter than another because it's closer or it can be brighter than another because it really is brighter and it's still close enough to outshine the other though it's farther away.

For example, during the day the sun is the brightest thing in the sky because it's super close. But the star Vega (which is actually a multi-star system) is more luminous than the sun, though if the two were in the sky at the same time, the sun would be so bright you probably wouldn't be able to see Vega. But with that in mind, the most luminous object in the observable universe isn't visible from Earth with the naked eye because it's so far. Now if you take the star Alpha Centauri, one of the closest stars to Earth aside from the sun, and compare it to Vega from Earth, Vega is farther but appears brighter. So you generally cannot tell which star is farther by it's brightness.

Answer 3

No, that is actually not the case. Some stars are just brighter than others. Some stars called "brown dwarf" are not very bright. A white, or yellow star is much brighter. For example: The brightest star in the sky (excluding our sun) is Sirius. Sirius is 8.6 light years. However the 4th brightest star, Alpha Centauri A is only 4.4 light years away.

Remember also, that a light year is the distance that light can travel in one earth year (close to 365 Days and 6 hours). Since the light that comes from all stars travels at the same speed, a light year is a constant distance, like a mile, only much larger.

A light year is a little less than 5.9 Billion miles!

Answer 4

Not necessarily. Stars come in different size, and bigger stars are intrinsically brighter. The second start system closer to our own is Barnard star, and it is so small and cold, it cannot be seen with the naked eye. The brightest star that can be seen from Earth (excepting the sun) is Sirius and is 8.6 light years, and is brighter that the main star of the Alpha Centauri system at 4.3 light years. Another very bright star is Betelgeuse, a giant red, and is 430 light years away.

Eta Carinae is one of the brightest star know in out galaxy, as bright as 5 million Sun, 7500 light years away. It will blow up in a massive supernova (it might already have done so...) that will likely be visible even in daytime.

Answer 5

Not necessarily. Most likely you are looking at a planet. Sirius is a star, the brightest in the sky, and it IS close (about 6 light years away). But is it also huge, bright, and hot (which makes it more luminous). There are stars that you can't see without the Hubble Telescope (brown dwarfs for example) which are closer. Betelgeuse in Orion is very bright, but it is 600 light years away. So, no, brightness is not an indication of distance, only an indication of how big and bright that star is.

Answer 6

maximum in all probability answer is definite. yet taking in to attention that as a huge call a protracted time, it burns brighter and could become larger. i might could desire to declare that there is an threat that the brighter great call and the dimmer great call are around an identical in easy years away, however the brighter great call is in simple terms older. yet by skill of the time fairly some the celebs lights quite get to Earth, that significant call has died. a number of those stars that we see could have died thousands and thousands of years in the past and that's in simple terms taken their easy that long to get right here.

Answer 7

No. Some bright stars are much further away than other stars that are closer but not especially bright. In fact, one of the closest stars (Barnard's star) can't be seen without a telescope. It all comes down to luminosity.

Answer 8

what you see is the "apparent brightness", in other words, it LOOKS brighter. It might be because it's closer or it might look brighter because it REALLY is a brighter star (and further away).

Answer 9

Well put it this way, if star A is bright, but is far away. Then you have star B which is dim, but close. The two stars should look the same, but they might differ in color.

Answer 10

Not necessarily
Brightness is a function of distance and also the size of the star and other properties of the star