How would you use the parallax formula to determine the distances to a star (in parsecs)? The parallax angle is 0.002790.

1 Answer
Nov 29, 2016

Assuming that the parallax angle unit is 1 degree, the distance of the star is 10.04 parsec.

Explanation:

I assume that the unit for angle is 1 degree.

By definition of parsec, for parallax angle 1sec, the distance is 1

parsec.

So, for #0.002790^o= 0.002790 X 3600 sec=10.044 sec, the

distance is 10.044 parsec

# = 10.04 X 206265 AU#

# = (10.04 X 206265)/62900# light years

#=32.92# light years, nearly..