What intrinsic property of a star describes its total energy output irrespective of the observer's distance?
Answer
Luminosity
Luminosity represents the absolute, total power a star generates and radiates into space every second. This value is inherent to the star itself, determined by its physical characteristics like size and temperature, and therefore does not diminish as the distance between the star and the observer increases. This contrasts sharply with apparent brightness, which is the measure of how bright the star appears from a specific vantage point, and this apparent measurement decreases significantly as the separation distance grows larger.
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