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?

Answer 1

Star B is more distant and its distance from Sun is 50 parsecs or #163# light years.

The relationship between a star's distance and its parallax angle is given by #d = 1/p#, where the distance #d# is measured in parsecs (equal to #3.26# light years) and the parallax angle #p# is measured in arcseconds.

Hence Star A is at a distance of #1/0.04# or #25# parsecs, while Star B is at a distance of #1/0.02# or #50# parsecs.

Star B is therefore farther away from the Sun, at a distance of 50 parsecs, or 163 light years.

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Answer 2

Ian Aitchison

Star A is more distant from the sun. The distance to star A from the sun is 25 parsecs.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.