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What is the Formula for Determining the luminosity of a star?

What is the equation/Formula for finding the luminosity of a star in Solar Luminosities?

Please explain clearly and write what each letter represents

say a star was 5 time larger than the sun and it had a temperature of 8,000 kelvin, what would be the luminosity of this stars is L_sun?

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The formula for the Luminosity L = Area * Energy Flux = 4pi R^2 * sigma T^4, where R is the radius and T the temperature. The second factor is of course the Stefan-Boltzman law.

    As my computer doesn't like Greek letters, and because I always forget the values of these pesky constants, I prefer to write: L/L_Sun = (R/R_Sun)^2 (T/T_Sun)^4

    In this case L/L_Sun= 5^2 (8000/5780)^4 = 91.7

    So L = 91.7 L_Sun.

  • Anonymous
    6 years ago

    This Site Might Help You.

    RE:

    What is the Formula for Determining the luminosity of a star?

    What is the equation/Formula for finding the luminosity of a star in Solar Luminosities?

    Please explain clearly and write what each letter represents

    say a star was 5 time larger than the sun and it had a temperature of 8,000 kelvin, what would be the luminosity of this stars is L_sun?

    Source(s): formula determining luminosity star: https://shortly.im/bgB9B
  • 4 years ago

    Luminosity Equation

  • 1 decade ago

    Luminosity means the total energy radiated by a body (star) per second. Luminosity is L= Flux x Area of a body. Assuming that 5 times larger than the Sun means 5 times the surface of the Sun, you get:

    L_star = 5 x Solar surfaces x sigma x (8000)^4.

    sigma = Stefan Boltzmann constant 5.67x10^(-12)

    sigma x (T)^4 means energy radiated per second per unit area by a body at temperature T.

    L_star= 4pi x (R_star)^2 x sigma x (T_star)^4.

    Where R_star = Radius of the star. T_star = Temperature of the star.

    You need to know the output of the sun or the temperature of the sun for this problem though.

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  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    luminosity = 4 * π * R² * S * T^4 'R' radius of star 'S' Stephan Boltzman Constant (5.6703 10-8 (W/m2K4)) 'T' temperature of star Luminosity of star = 1.793 Joules/second (Watts)

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