How do we calculate or determine the distances to stars? What units do we use and what are the limitations (if any) of the method used for such calculations?

The popular method that is being used is called the parallax. Due to the earth’s revolution around the sun, stars that are close by earth also seem to be very distant. Thus, astronomers, by having prior knowledge of the movement of stars and the earth’s orbit, are able to calculate the distance of stars from earth.

‘Light years’ is the name of the units used to calculate the distance to the stars. Commonly used methods of determining distance to the stars could be inferred from the use of trigonometry parallax. However, the usefulness of this method is arguable since the valuations of even nearby stars may not be accurate. Further, it is also seen that atmospheric fuzziness may blur star images, thus rendering such measures difficult. Hence, the parallax method has limited application only for stars at a distance up to 100 pc away.

For stars more than 100 pc away, it is seen that the parallax angle is too restrictive and thus may not be able to provide accurate results.

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Academic.Tips. 2022. "How do we calculate or determine the distances to stars? What units do we use and what are the limitations (if any) of the method used for such calculations?" December 14, 2022. https://academic.tips/question/how-do-we-calculate-or-determine-the-distances-to-stars-what-units-do-we-use-and-what-are-the-limitations-if-any-of-the-method-used-for-such-calculations/.

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