Surface Brightness

Surface Brightness

The overall brightness of an extended astronomical object such as a galaxy, star cluster, or nebula, can be measured by its total magnitude, integrated magnitude or integrated visual magnitude; a related concept is surface brightness, which specifies the brightness of a standard-sized piece of an extended object.

Read more about Surface Brightness:  General Description, Calculating Surface Brightness, Relationship To Physical Units

Famous quotes containing the words surface and/or brightness:

    Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me.
    Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)

    For pain is perhaps but a violent pleasure? Who could determine the point where pleasure becomes pain, where pain is still a pleasure? Is not the utmost brightness of the ideal world soothing to us, while the lightest shadows of the physical world annoy?
    HonorĂ© De Balzac (1799–1850)