What information can light reveal about stars?

Answer 1

How big, bright, far away, old, and how big our galaxy is, they teach us about how big our universe COULD be, how big our galaxy is, if there our new stars forming in our galaxy, and about *Quasars. They learn alot about space with star light, ecspecially because of alberts einsteins theory on the speed of light, or if you perfer *light years.

*Quasars- Some scientists belive they are a beginning of a new galaxy, it takes over a billion years for the light to reach earth, it takes over 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach earth.

* Light years is the amount of time it takes light to reach earth, or anywhere for example since takes 8 minutes for light to reach earth (this is inacerite) it might take is 20 minutes for light to reach mars or light years. (If all this confuses you leave a comment and I will simplify it for you.)

Answer 2

This is one of those simple, intuitive concepts that gets long and involved when we try to explain it in precise, objective terms (such as the first link below). Brightness is subjective (it is different from one person to another: a bright light to me is not bright to my Dad who works outside in the sunlight most of the time). Ancient astronomers tried to figure out how bright stars are, and some came up with some fairly good standards, like one particular star (such as Deneb) looks as bright as a small candle from 200 yards away on a dark night, but another star (like Polaris) looks like that same candle from a mile away. These days, we try to make the definition more precise and more objective by declaring standards, like the International Astronomical Union does, and using different words such as luminosity, which don't depend on what is looks like to someone, but is a specific measurement of energy output.

Answer 3

The color of stars determines temperature. Red/brown stars are cooler, blue stars are hotter, and yellow stars are in between. Brightness also has some correlation with color. Both are based on many varying factors however.

Answer 4

Several different things: what they are made of, how far away they are, how fast they are burning their fuel, and possibly other objects in between us and the star (dimming or brightening their light.)

Answer 5

First of all there is the "apparent brightness", how bright the star seems to us.

The "absolute brightness" (or magnitude) means, how far would the star look at a standard distance of 10 parsecs. To know the absolute magnitude of a star, obviously the distance of the star must be known. This is then compared to the apparent magnitude. Dust and gas between the star and the observer can also make it appear dimmer; this must be taken into account.

First of all there is the "apparent brightness", how bright the star seems to us.

The "absolute brightness" (or magnitude) means, how far would the star look at a standard distance of 10 parsecs. To know the absolute magnitude of a star, obviously the distance of the star must be known. This is then compared to the apparent magnitude. Dust and gas between the star and the observer can also make it appear dimmer; this must be taken into account.

First of all there is the "apparent brightness", how bright the star seems to us.

The "absolute brightness" (or magnitude) means, how far would the star look at a standard distance of 10 parsecs. To know the absolute magnitude of a star, obviously the distance of the star must be known. This is then compared to the apparent magnitude. Dust and gas between the star and the observer can also make it appear dimmer; this must be taken into account.

First of all there is the "apparent brightness", how bright the star seems to us.

The "absolute brightness" (or magnitude) means, how far would the star look at a standard distance of 10 parsecs. To know the absolute magnitude of a star, obviously the distance of the star must be known. This is then compared to the apparent magnitude. Dust and gas between the star and the observer can also make it appear dimmer; this must be taken into account.

Answer 6

First of all there is the "apparent brightness", how bright the star seems to us.

The "absolute brightness" (or magnitude) means, how far would the star look at a standard distance of 10 parsecs. To know the absolute magnitude of a star, obviously the distance of the star must be known. This is then compared to the apparent magnitude. Dust and gas between the star and the observer can also make it appear dimmer; this must be taken into account.

Answer 7

The light can be analysed and the composition of the star can be evaluated.

Answer 8

Light can tell a lot of stuff about stars one thing that we can tell is how far a star is depending on how much time it takes for light to reach Earth.