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What is the distance from earth of a star that has a parallax of 3 seconds?
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
Assuming this would have been taken in May and January, we have some simple trig to do.
1 second is 1/3600th of a degree, so 1/1200th of a degree is the parallax. We will need to use the diameter of the Earth's orbit, which is about 300 million kilometers. If we draw this, we see that we have an icoseles triangle. We bisect the top angle, which bisects the bottom side. We have two right triangles now, and we can use the sine of 1/2400 of a degree, which is 150,000,000/the distance. We divide this number by 150,000,000, getting 1/distance = 4.848 times 10^-14. We do this answer to the -1 to get an answer for distance, or 2.06*10^13 km, which is equal to 68,754,935 light years. This is for a perfect 3 seconds, so there is obviously a margin of error. However, I am thirteen years old and have never done this before, so it may be wrong. When stuck with a problem like this, my suggestion is to draw a picture.
-Weston
A+
57.7 trillion miles
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoYou have to divide 1 by the parallax, in arc-seconds. The answer is the distance in parsec. Note: There is currently no star that close from us (other than the Sun, of course, which is much closer).
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoA parsec is about 3.26 light-years, and, by definition, it takes light a year to travel a light-year.
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Is a star with no measurable parallax is very close to Earth.?
No, if you can measure no parallax, the star is far away - further than a certain distance.
What is it called when astronomers estimate the distance from Earth using the fact that nearby stars shift in position as observed from Earth?
That is called parallax and it happens when a nearby star appears to move against the background as the Earth moves round the Sun. The baseline is the mean radius of the Earth's orbit (not the diameter) and a star which has a parallax of 1 arc-second would be at a distance of 1 parsec. In practice the nearest stars have a parallax of about 0.7 seconds so are at a distance of 1.4 parsecs or 4 light-years. Parallaxes are always small and require sensitive instruments to measure. The lack of parallax was formerly used as a proof that the Earth must be fixed, and it took until 1838 for Bessel to measure the first stellar parallax. After that people began to realise that the stars are much further away than they had thought.
If you determinee that a certain star displayed a large parallax what couls you say about its distance?
If a certain star displayed a large parallax, i would say its distance is not wide.
How does parallax shift varies with distance?
The closer the star, the greater the parallax angle, which is why you can't measure the distance to very distant stars using the parallax method.
What is a stars parallax?
The parallax refers to the apparent change in the star's position, due to Earth's movement around the Sun. This parallax can be used to measure the distance to nearby stars (the closer the star, the larger will its parallax be).
Is parallax a star?
The parallax refers to the apparent change in the star's position, due to Earth's movement around the Sun. This parallax can be used to measure the distance to nearby stars (the closer the star, the larger will its parallax be).
If a star has a parallax of 0.20 arc seconds what is the distance to that star?
I assume you mean the parallax. If the parallax is 0.1 arc-seconds, then the distance is 1 / 0.1 = 10 parsecs.I assume you mean the parallax. If the parallax is 0.1 arc-seconds, then the distance is 1 / 0.1 = 10 parsecs.I assume you mean the parallax. If the parallax is 0.1 arc-seconds, then the distance is 1 / 0.1 = 10 parsecs.I assume you mean the parallax. If the parallax is 0.1 arc-seconds, then the distance is 1 / 0.1 = 10 parsecs.
What does a big parralax say about a stars distance?
The larger a star's parallax, the closer the star is to us.
If a star's parallax angle is too small to measure what can you conclude about the star's distance from earth?
It means that the distance is greater than a certain amount - depending on how precisely you can measure the parallax.
What is a name for the apparent movement of a star used to measure its distance from earth?
parallax
What is the apparent movement of a star used to measure its distance from earth?
This is called PARALLAX.
If a star's parallax angle is too small to measure what can you conclude about the star's distance from the earth?
It means that the distance is greater than a certain amount - depending on how precisely you can measure the parallax.
The method used to figure out the distance from Earth to a star is the?
Parallax. See related question.
Is a star with no measurable parallax is very close to Earth.?
No, if you can measure no parallax, the star is far away - further than a certain distance.
The parallax of a star is observed because?
Parallax helps because the bigger the parallax is the closer the star is. Knowing the distance helps to determine the "absolute magnitude" of a star, not just how bright it appears.
What measures star distance from the Earth?
Stellar Parallax Astronomers estimate the distance of nearby objects in space by using a method called stellar parallax, or trigonometric parallax. Simply put, they measure a star's apparent movement against the background of more distant stars as Earth revolves around the sun.
If a star has a parallax of 0.05 then its distance in light years is about?
If a star has a parallax of 0.05 (seconds of arc) then its distance in light years is about 65.2 light years. A little more detail, if required: Distance to a star (in parsecs) = 1/parallax (in seconds of arc). So, in this case: Distance = 1/0.05 = 20 parsecs. A parsec is a distance of about 3.26 light years. So, that means the answer is about 20 x 3.26 light years. That's about 65.2 light years.
