The visible light from a gamma ray burst has an apparent magnitude of 8.0. The distance of...

The visible light from a gamma ray burst has an apparent magnitude of 8.0. The distance of the galaxy in which the burst occurred is 3 billion pc. Find the absolute magnitude of the visible light. How does this compare with the absolute magnitude of the Sun? (Use Equation 16.3.)

Equation 16.3 Luminosity and Absolute Magnitude Equation 16.3 describes how the ratio of the luminosities of two stars is related to the difference in their absolute magnitudes. Suppose star 1 is 100 times as luminous as star 2. Then

Using Equation 16.3, the magnitudes of stars 1 and 2 are related by

Thus, the absolute magnitudes of star 2 is 5 magnitudes greater (fainter) than that of star 1.