Is the brightest star in the sky the one which is closest to us ?
Apart from the Sun, no. When a star is proceeding thought its ‘normal’ adulthood, fusing hydrogen into helium in its core, we say it is a ‘main sequence star’ The amout of light that a ‘main sequence stars’ puts out (Luminosity) is directly linked to its mass. The more massive ths star, the more luminosity (and the shorter the life on the main sequence). Stellar formation theories tell us that it is (statistically) much easier to form small stars than big ones (e.g., a given large collapsing cloud is more likely to form many smaller stars than one huge star). In addition, smaller stars stick around much longer. Therefore, during our very brief history (astronomically speaking), we are more likely to be surrounded by faint small stars than by huge brilliant ones. However, faint stars cannot be seen very far. Our own Sun would become invisible to us if we move off by a mere 50 light-years. Most stars that we see in the sky are hundreds and thousands of light years away. Therefore, we onl
