Are the brightest stars the ones closest to the earth?
You are right. The brightest star is the star which is closest to Earth, and that star is our sun. As for all the other stars, there are several factors which come in to play. Not all stars are identical. The size and color of the star is also important (forming the luminosity), along with its distance in determining its Earth viewed brightness. Did you know, most of the stars visible by unaided eye are brighter than our sun in an absolute luminosity sense? But, for purposes of this discussion, we are talking about the the Earth-viewed brightness. #2: Sirius is the next brightest star second to our sun. It is a distance of 8.6 light years from us #3: Canopus, 310 ly from Earth. #4: Acrturus, 36.7 ly from Earth. #5: Alpha Centauri A, 4.36 ly from Earth. Alpha Centauri A is one of our three nearest neighboring stars, and it is very similar in stellar classification to our sun.
