Star distance measured by what?

Answer 1

depends who's measuring and which star. it is a matter of preference.

1. kilometers/miles - relatively nearby star like our sun

2. lightyears - near-medium star like the nearest star except the sun

3. parsecs - medium-far star

4. megaparsecs - very far star

there are some others but they are not the usual ones

Answer 2

You can use any unit of length; light-years and parsecs are often used in practice.

You can use any unit of length; light-years and parsecs are often used in practice.

You can use any unit of length; light-years and parsecs are often used in practice.

You can use any unit of length; light-years and parsecs are often used in practice.

Answer 3

There are two techniques that are both fairly basic; one is more accurate for nearer stars, while the other is much less accurate.

The first method is measuring the stellar parallax shift. Observe a relatively close star (within about 300 light years or so) and compare the positions of the distant background stars. Do this when the star is nearly overhead at dawn. Wait six months so that the same star is nearly overhead at sunset, and measure the shift in the star's position relative to the background stars. With careful measurement, you can measure the shift in the positions of the background stars in fractions of a second of arc.

For a star that has a parallax shift of one second of arc, we define the distance to that star as one "PARallax SECond of arc", or one "PARSEC". This is approximately equal to 3.1 light years away.

We can also measure the brightness of these stars, and measure their color; the color gives us some idea of how bright the star REALLY is, and we compare our calculated brightness to the measured brightness, and we can make some good guesses as to how far away the star must be to appear that dim or bright.

Answer 4

Stars are measured in units called light-years

Answer 5

You can use any unit of length; light-years and parsecs are often used in practice.