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Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. [1] [2] Due to foreshortening, nearby objects show a larger parallax than farther objects, so parallax can be used to determine distances.
Stellar parallax is most often measured using annual parallax, defined as the difference in position of a star as seen from Earth and Sun, i.e. the angle subtended at a star by the mean radius of Earth's orbit around the Sun. The parsec (3.26 light-years) is defined as the distance for which the annual parallax is 1 arcsecond. Annual parallax ...
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).
Astronomers usually express distances in units of parsecs (parallax arcseconds); light-years are used in popular media. Because parallax becomes smaller for a greater stellar distance, useful distances can be measured only for stars which are near enough to have a parallax larger than a few times the precision of the measurement.
The comoving distance (with a small correction for our own motion) is the distance that would be obtained from parallax, because the parallax in degrees equals the ratio of an astronomical unit to the circumference of a circle at the present time going through the sun and centred on the distant object, multiplied by 360°.
Spectroscopic parallax or main sequence fitting [1] is an astronomical method for measuring the distances to stars. Despite its name, it does not rely on the geometric parallax effect. The spectroscopic parallax technique can be applied to any main sequence star for which a spectrum can be recorded.
A dynamical parallax is an (annual) [clarification needed] parallax which is computed from such an estimated distance. To calculate a dynamical parallax, the angular semi-major axis of the orbit of the stars is observed, as is their apparent brightness .
Distance light travels in one Julian year (365.25 days) — Oort cloud: 75 000: ± 25 000: Distance of the outer limit of Oort cloud from the Sun (estimated, corresponds to 1.2 light-years) — Parsec: 206 265 — One parsec. The parsec is defined in terms of the astronomical unit, is used to measure distances beyond the scope of the Solar ...