Besides the Sun, all other stars appear to be pin-pricks of light. Why do the other stars appear so small?

Four students are making claims about stars and their apparent brightness.

• Ursula: "The star that appears brightest to us is the Sun because it is the largest in the galaxy."
• Gretel: "The Sun appears to be the brightest star because it is the closest to Earth."
• Hansel: "The Sun is the brightest star when looking from Earth because it is the hottest."
• Phoebe: "I have seen brighter stars than the Sun; it isn't that great."

Their teacher shares the following information from NASA, "Of course, the star that appears the brightest to all of us on Earth is the Sun. Although it is a rather typical star, not all that different from many of the ones you see at night, we live so close to it that it outshines everything else. Even the next closest star is more than a quarter of a million times farther from Earth, so it is not surprising that the light from the Sun overwhelms that from other stars."

Which student's argument is supported by the teacher's research?

Source: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-space/brightest-star.html

Which statement about the Sun is correct?

"To find out the true brightness of a star, scientists need to know how far it is. Although there are some very clever ways of gauging the distances to stars, they generally work well only for stars that are in the Sun's neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy. The more distant stars are just so fantastically far from us that measuring their distances accurately is too difficult. Making it still harder to know how bright a star is, there is a kind of patchy fog between the stars - space is not truly empty. Although it is not the same as the fog on Earth, gas and dust in space can dim the light of stars. Without a good way to know how much of this interstellar fog is blocking the light, there is no reliable way to discover the true brightness of a star." - NASA

Which piece of evidence from NASA's passage describes a complication with measuring a star's actual brightness?

Source: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-space/brightest-star.html

Mrs. Johnson's class is investigating the brightness of stars. Mrs. Johnson sets up the investigation, and the students begin working. The first two student volunteers held identical flashlights at an equal distance from the whiteboard. The class decides after noting the lights on the board look the same that when two stars are at an equal distance, they have the same actual brightness. For the second part of the investigation, two student volunteers held the identical flashlights at two different distances. Students observed than the flashlight that is closer to the whiteboard appears to be brighter than the flashlight that is further away from the whiteboard. Their observations are recorded in the data table below.

What inference can the students draw from this demonstration?

NASA gives background information on the brightness of stars, "To find out the true brightness of a star; scientists need to know how far it is. Although there are some very clever ways of gauging the distances to stars, they generally work well only for stars that are in the Sun's neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy. The more distant stars are just so fantastically far from us that measuring their distances accurately is too difficult. Making it still harder to know how bright a star is, there is a kind of patchy fog between the stars - space is not truly empty. Although it is not the same as the fog on Earth, gas and dust in space can dim the light of stars. Without a good way to know how much of this interstellar fog is blocking the light, there is no reliable way to discover the true brightness of a star."

Which piece of text evidence supports the claim that it is possible to measure the actual brightness of stars?

Source: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-space/brightest-star.html

Dot makes a statement to her teacher. "The Sun is the brightest star in the galaxy and no other star can compare." She provides this evidence from NASA to support her argument, "Although we don't know which star truly is the brightest, we know some are remarkably bright. You can see one of them any clear night this summer. Deneb is northeastern of the three stars that form a large and easily seen grouping called the Summer Triangle. While Deneb shines the brightest in the constellation Cygnus, 17 other stars glow brighter in our night skies. But Deneb is much farther from Earth than most of the other stars you see, and this giant is around 100,000 times brighter than the Sun. If Deneb were the same distance from Earth as Vega, another star in the Summer Triangle, not only would it outshine all the stars and planets visible at night, but it would even be bright enough to see in the daytime!"

Dot's argument and evidence are in sync.

Source: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-space/brightest-star.html

True or False: All of the stars we see in the night sky are part of our solar system.

True or False: The Sun is the largest, hottest, and brightest star in our solar system.

Why do many students believe that the Sun is the largest or brightest star?