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The astronomical unit is too small to be convenient for interstellar distances, where the parsec and light-year are widely used. The parsec (parallax arcsecond) is defined in terms of the astronomical unit, being the distance of an object with a parallax of 1″. The light-year is often used in popular works, but is not an approved non-SI unit ...
[a] The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and is defined as the distance at which 1 AU subtends an angle of one arcsecond [1] ( 1 / 3600 of a degree). The nearest star, Proxima Centauri , is about 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light-years) from the Sun : from that distance, the gap between the Earth and the Sun spans ...
The astronomical unit of length is now defined as exactly 149 597 870 700 meters. [4] It is approximately equal to the mean Earth–Sun distance. It was formerly defined as that length for which the Gaussian gravitational constant (k) takes the value 0.017 202 098 95 when the units of measurement are the astronomical units of length, mass and ...
1.6 × 10 0 ly: The Oort cloud is approximately two light-years in diameter. Its inner boundary is speculated to be at 50 000 au ≈ 0.8 ly, with its outer edge at 100 000 au ≈ 1.6 ly. 2.0 × 10 0 ly: Approximate maximum distance at which an object can orbit the Sun (Hill sphere/Roche sphere, 125 000 au).
Average distance between the center of Earth and the center of the Moon. astronomical unit au. Defined as 149 597 870 700 m. [11] Approximately the distance between the Earth and Sun. light-year ly ≈ 9 460 730 472 580.8 km. The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. [12] parsec pc ≈ 30 856 775 814 671.9 km or about 3. ...
695,700 kilometres (432,300 miles) is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter, 109 times the radius of the Earth, and 1/215th of an astronomical unit, the approximate distance between Earth and the Sun.
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an object of diameter 1 AU (149 597 871 km) at a distance of 1 parsec (pc) Thus, the angular diameter of Earth's orbit around the Sun as viewed from a distance of 1 pc is 2″, as 1 AU is the mean radius of Earth's orbit. The angular diameter of the Sun, from a distance of one light-year, is 0.03″, and that of Earth 0.0003″. The angular ...