An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The → total → brightness of a star or other astronomical object. It is expressed in watts and represents the total amount of → energy that the object radiates each → second over all wavelength regions of the → electromagnetic spectrum. Because this quantity is independent of distance, it is an → intrinsic brightness.

See also:
→ absolute luminosity, → anomalous luminosity effect, → bolometric luminosity, → color-luminosity diagram, → Eddington luminosity, → H II region luminosity, → intrinsic luminosity, → luminosity class, → luminosity distance, → luminosity function, → luminosity problem, → luminosity-size relation, → mass-luminosity ratio, → mass-luminosity relation, → peak luminosity, → period-luminosity relation, → solar luminosity, → stellar luminosity, → wind luminosity.

See also: Verbal noun of → luminous.