Reply #58: Have to agree that is could be considered a trick question

[pmbryant]

93 million miles, 93 billion miles, 93 trillion miles. The distinction is probably not relevant, and certainly not at the tip of their tongues, for most people. Throw in the bit about "type G star" and it becomes somewhat tricky.

As such, you presumably realize that the sun is somewhat LESS bright than average, not more, as you say. Consult a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram - as an astronomy buff who finds questions invovlving the sun to be "tricks", I'm sure you must be familiar with them.

Well, the previous poster was referring to the Sun's apparent brightness, which of course is far above average.

And even if you go by intrinsic brightness, the Sun is brighter than the typical star, since the vast majority of stars are red dwarfs (on the lower right corner of the HR diagram).

--Peter