What is the difference between luminosity, absolute magnitude and apparent magnitude?
The luminosity of an object in space is the amount of energy that it radiates each second in all directions. Luminosity is also referred to as the absolute magnitude or absolute brightness of an object. It is the real brightness of a celestial object. The apparent magnitude or apparent brightness of an object is a measure of how bright an object appears to be to an observer. It is the amount of energy from an object in space which reaches a square centimeter of a detector each second. Apparent magnitude is also referred to as flux. It is a measure of how bright a celestial object appears to us. The apparent magnitude of an object depends upon its real brightness and on its distance from us.
