GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -A higher positive number means a fainter celestial object; whereas a higher negative number means a brighter celestial object. For instance, Venus at its brightest has a magnitude of-4.6 and the faintest star visible to the unaided eye has a magnitude of +6.0.

Detailed explanation-2: -Because less light translates to a larger magnitude value, for B–V colors a negative value means that the blue magnitude is a smaller number, and thus that the star is brighter at blue than at visual wavelengths. We call the stars with the smallest B–V color “blue", and those with the largest B–V magnitudes “red".

Detailed explanation-3: -A star’s actual brightness refers to how much power a star has-which can also be explained as the amount of wattage it has (think of light bulbs!). Stars with more power (or higher wattage) will shine brighter than those with less power (lower wattage).

Detailed explanation-4: -The brightness of the star Vega in the sky is used to define an apparent magnitude of 0. Objects that appear brighter than Vega have negative apparent magnitudes, and objects that appear dimmer have positive apparent magnitudes. The Sun has an apparent magnitude of-27, but an absolute magnitude of 4.83.