Star A has a parallax of 0.04 seconds of arc. Star B has a parallax of 0.02 seconds of arc. Which star is more distant from the sun? What is the distance to star A from the sun, in parsecs? thanks?

1 Answer
Feb 24, 2016

Star B is more distant and its distance from Sun is 50 parsecs or 163163 light years.

Explanation:

The relationship between a star's distance and its parallax angle is given by d = 1/pd=1p, where the distance dd is measured in parsecs (equal to 3.263.26 light years) and the parallax angle pp is measured in arcseconds.

Hence Star A is at a distance of 1/0.0410.04 or 2525 parsecs, while Star B is at a distance of 1/0.0210.02 or 5050 parsecs.

Hence Star B is more distant and its distance from Sun is 50 parsecs or 163163 light years.