This article is about intrinsic luminosity of stars (absolute magnitude). For the brightness of stars as seen from Earth (apparent magnitude), see list of brightest stars.
Photograph of the Sun taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
This is a list of stars arranged by their absolute magnitude – their intrinsic stellar luminosity. This cannot be observed directly, so instead must be calculated from the apparent magnitude (the brightness as seen from Earth), the distance to each star, and a correction for interstellar extinction. The entries in the list below are further corrected to provide the bolometric magnitude, i.e. integrated over all wavelengths; this relies upon measurements in multiple photometric filters and extrapolation of the stellar spectrum based on the stellar spectral type and/or effective temperature.
Entries give the bolometric luminosity in multiples of the luminosity of the Sun (L☉) and the bolometric absolute magnitude. As with all magnitude systems in astronomy, the latter scale is logarithmic and inverted i.e. more negative numbers are more luminous.
Most stars on this list are not bright enough to be visible to the naked eye from Earth, because of their high distances, high extinction, or because they emit most of their light outside the visible range. For a list of the brightest stars seen from Earth, see the list of brightest stars. There are three stars with over 1 million L☉ and visible to the naked eye: WR 22, WR 24 and Eta Carinae. All of these stars are located in the Carina nebula.
and 29 Related for: List of most luminous stars information
negative numbers are more luminous. Moststars on this list are not bright enough to be visible to the naked eye from Earth, because of their high distances...
converting the apparent magnitude to the absolute magnitude, see the listofmostluminousstars. The Sun is the brightest star as viewed from Earth, at −26.78 mag...
This is a listof the most massive stars that have been discovered, in solar mass units (M☉). Mostof the masses listed below are contested and, being...
Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are massive evolved stars that show unpredictable and sometimes dramatic variations in their spectra and brightness. They...
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constant). Historical brightest starsListof brightest starsListofmostluminousstarsListof nearest bright starsListof Solar System objects in hydrostatic...
that system, at 4.2465 light-years from Earth. The brightest, most massive and mostluminous object among those 131 is Sirius A, which is also the brightest...
that have an absolute magnitude of +8.5 or brighter, which is approximately comparable to a listingofstars more luminous than a red dwarf. Right ascension...
thousand times that of the Sun. Stars still more luminous than giants are referred to as supergiants and hypergiants. A hot, luminous main-sequence star...
often somewhat more luminous than their normal main-sequence counterparts of the same temperatures and because many of these stars are relatively nearby...
R134 (star), a star in the Tarantula Nebula; see listofmost massive stars and listofmostluminousstars R134, an R boat, a German naval vessel built during...
tude (MV) Supergiants are among the most massive and mostluminousstars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with...
"Listof IAU-approved Star Names" since 2016. As of April 2022, the list included a total of 451 proper names ofstars. Of the roughly 10,000 stars visible...
Luminous infrared galaxies or LIRGs are galaxies with luminosities, the measurement of brightness, above 1011 L☉. They are also referred to as submillimeter...
A super-luminous supernova (SLSN, plural super luminous supernovae or SLSNe) is a type of stellar explosion with a luminosity 10 or more times higher...
of stars List of brightest stars Listof nearest bright stars Historical brightest starsListofmostluminousstars Owing to its rapid rotation, Altair's...
for RMC 136a1) is one of the most massive and luminousstars known, at nearly 200 M☉ and nearly 4.7 million L☉, and is also one of the hottest, at around...
estimate the surface gravity of a star, hence determining its size relative to its mass. Larger stars are more luminous at a given temperature and can...
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