Question

Than a cool

FIGURE 2 ...........
Apparent and Absolute Brightness
The three stars Alnitak, Alnilam, and
Mintaka in the constellation Orion all
seem to have the same apparent bright-
ness from Earth. But Alnilam is actually
farther away than the other two stars.
CHALLENGE Which star has the
greatest absolute brightness? How do
you know?
30 points !!!!!

Answer 1

Alnilam is the brightest star

Absolute brightness is how bright the star actually is. Apparent brightness is how bright the star looks.

Factors that influence how bright a star looks is distance. The fact that Alnilam has the same apparent brightness of the other two stars even though it is farther away, means that it is brighter.