What does apparent brightness mean?

• How much light a star actually makes
• How bright a star looks to us
• How big a star is

Why does the Sun look brighter than any other star in the sky?

• It is the biggest star in the universe
• It is the closest star to Earth
• It is the hottest star in the universe

The Sun is the biggest and brightest star in the whole universe.

Circle one:   True   False

Which pair of words describes the difference between how bright a star looks and how much light it truly gives off?

• Apparent brightness and actual brightness
• Big star and small star
• Near star and hot star

A flashlight is held near your eyes. A stadium floodlight sits far across a field. Which looks brighter to you, and why?

• The floodlight, because it is more powerful
• The flashlight, because it is closer
• They look exactly the same

Some stars are far bigger than the Sun but look dimmer to us. What best explains this?

• They are farther away than the Sun
• They are colder than the Sun
• They are smaller than the Sun

Look at the chart. Which one produces more actual light, even though it looks like a faint dot in our night sky?

• They produce the same amount
• The Sun
• The giant star far away

Ben says, 'That star is much bigger than the Sun, so it must look brighter to us too.' What is wrong with Ben's thinking?

• Big stars are actually always smaller than the Sun
• The star could be much farther away, so it looks dimmer even though it's bigger
• Bigger stars always look dimmer than smaller stars