EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -On the modern magnitude scale, Sirius, the star with the brightest apparent magnitude, has been assigned a magnitude of −1.5. Other objects in the sky can appear even brighter. Venus at its brightest is of magnitude −4.4, while the Sun has a magnitude of −26.8.

Detailed explanation-2: -Apparent magnitude (m) is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object’s apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object’s light caused by interstellar dust along the line of sight to the observer.

Detailed explanation-3: -Apparent magnitude m of a star is a number that tells how bright that star appears at its great distance from Earth. The scale is “backwards” and logarithmic. Larger magnitudes correspond to fainter stars. Note that brightness is another way to say the flux of light, in Watts per square meter, coming towards us.