Stellar luminosity converter
Convert how much light a star actually produces, between solar luminosities, watts and absolute magnitude.
That's about the same as the Sun. That would run about 1.276×10¹⁴ of the world’s electricity grids.
What it means
How much light is that?
This is bolometric luminosity: all the radiation, not just visible light. A cool red star emits most of its output in infrared.
Every unit
Your luminosity in every unit
Learn
Three things worth knowing
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The Sun is 3.83 × 10²⁶ watts
That is a trillion times the world’s entire electricity generation, radiated continuously for four and a half billion years.
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Luminosity against brightness
How bright a star looks depends on both its luminosity and its distance. Separating the two is most of observational astronomy.
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Mass matters enormously
Luminosity rises roughly as the fourth power of mass: a star twice the Sun’s mass shines about sixteen times brighter, and burns out far sooner.
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Popular luminosity conversions
Background
About luminosity
Luminosity is what a star actually emits, in watts. The Sun manages 3.83 × 10²⁶ W, and astronomers use that as the unit.
The range is enormous: a red dwarf is a thousandth of the Sun, a blue supergiant a hundred thousand times more, and a quasar outshines an entire galaxy.