Question

the parallax of star is 0.38 arc second. Calculate its distance from earth in light year

Answer 1

Given:

Parallax of star = 0.38 arcseconds.

To find:

Its distance from earth in light year.

Solution:

As we know that:

1/p = d

where p is the parallax in arcseconds,

d is the distance in parsecs,.

And we also know that distance in parsecs:

d = 1/0.379 = 2.64 parsecs.

1 parsec = 3.264 lightyears

Therefore 2.64 parsecs is 8.61 lightyears.

Therefore, the distance from earth in light years is 8.61 lightyears.