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Other contributors have said "How is apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude?" is the same question as "What is the difference between absolute magnitude and apparent magnitude?"

What is the difference between absolute magnitude and apparent magnitude?

In: Astronomy, Earth Sciences

Answer:

Apparent magnitude is the brightness of an object as seen from Earth without any atmosphere.

Absolute magnitude is the brightness of an object as seen from a predetermined distance, depending on the object.

For planets, the distance used is 1 AU (Astronomical Units). Stars and galaxies use 10 parsecs which is about 32.616 light years.

The dimmer an object is the higher the positive value. The brighter an object is the higher the negative value.

Examples:

The Sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.74 but an absolute magnitude of 4.83

Sirius has an apparent magnitude of -1.46 but an absolute magnitude of -1.42

This means that from Earth, the Sun is a lot brighter, but if the Sun was replaced by Sirius, Sirius would be 25 times more luminous.

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First answer by ID1148118278. Last edit by Cosmospup. Contributor trust: 852 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 27 [recommend question].

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Relevant answers:

What is the difference between absolute and relative magnitude?
Absolute is when you have something that is exact, or perfectly right, and relative magnitude would be something that would be close to the real thing, but maybe a few degrees off.
Compare apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude?
Apparent Magnitude is the star's brightness as it appears from earth, while, Absolute Magnitude is the apparent brightness of a star if viewed from a distance of 32.6 light years away.
How are absolute magnitude and apparent magnitude similar?
Magnitude is used in astronomy to indicate how bright a star is. Because of historical reasons the lower the magnitude the brighter the star. Now, if you measure the brightness of a star in the sky...
What is the Sun's absolute magnitude and its apparent magnitude?
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