December 6th, 2013

RBHS 2013-2014 Science Olympiad

Astronomy
Parallax

A) __________ is the measurement of __________ and __________ of celestial bodies.

B) Parallax is the _____________ in apparent _________ of an object viewed with different
lines of sight.
1.

1
2

Draw what the two viewpoints would see:

A:

B:

3
Figure 1

Figure 2

The two viewpoints used by astronomers are any two points on a diameter of Earths orbit
around the Sun. The radius of this diameter is one astronomical unit (AU), equivalent to exactly
149, 497, 870, 700 m. As the Earth orbits, the target star appears to change position in the night
sky. The movement of the Earth and the apparent motion of the star create several triangles, as
seen in Figure 2. Using right triangle geometry, one can determine the distance from Earth to the
star.

Figure 3

If the distance from the Sun to the star, labeled d in Figure 3, is one parsec, then the parallax
angle, labeled p in Figure 3, is one arcsecond (1/60th of a degree). One parsec is equivalent to
206, 265 AU, or 3.0857 x 1016 m, or 3.2616 light years. Since most DSOs are much farther from
the Sun than one parsec, the parallax angle is extremely small (p<<1). Since this is what is
known as a skinny triangle, the assumption is made that the angle is negligible, and that the
distance from Earth to the star is equivalent to the distance from the Sun to the star.
Given the triangle above in Figure 3, it is seen that:
Given that the triangle is a skinny triangle,
This is true if p is measure in radians.
We further find that

Where a is equivalent to 1 AU and p is the parallax angle measure in arcseconds. Thus, d is the
distance to the star in AU.