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A large heliometer was installed at Kuffner Observatory (In Vienna) in 1896, and was used for measuring the distance to other stars by trigonometric parallax. [10] By 1910 it had computed 16 parallax distances to other stars, out of only 108 total known to science at that time. [10]
The distance between the two stars is at least 3,750 AU (0.06 light-year, or almost a hundred times the average distance between Pluto and the Sun), so their orbital period is 170,000 years or more. [18] Both stars share similar physical characteristics to the Sun, [16] so they are considered solar analogs.
An illustration of how position angle is estimated through a telescope eyepiece; the primary star is at center. In astronomy, position angle (usually abbreviated PA) is the convention for measuring angles on the sky.
A parsec is the distance from the Sun to an astronomical object that has a parallax angle of one arcsecond (not to scale). The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,265 astronomical units (AU), i.e. 30.9 trillion kilometres (19.2 trillion miles).
Distances expressed in parsecs (pc) include distances between nearby stars, such as those in the same spiral arm or globular cluster. A distance of 1,000 parsecs (3,262 ly) is denoted by the kiloparsec (kpc). Astronomers typically use kiloparsecs to express distances between parts of a galaxy or within groups of galaxies. So, for example :
This number is wrong; originally announced in 1891, the figure was corrected in 1910 to 40 ly (60 mas). From 1891 to 1910, it had been thought this was the star with the smallest known parallax, hence the most distant star whose distance was known. Prior to 1891, Arcturus had previously been recorded of having a parallax of 127 mas.
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Inaccuracies of these measured parameters make determining the true minimum distances of any encountering stars or brown dwarfs fairly difficult. [72] One of the first stars known to approach the Sun particularly close is Gliese 710. The star, whose mass is roughly half that of the Sun, is currently 62 light-years from the Solar System.