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  2. Sun - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

    For the purpose of measurement, the Sun's radius is considered to be the distance from its center to the edge of the photosphere, the apparent visible surface of the Sun. [41] By this measure, the Sun is a near-perfect sphere with an oblateness estimated at 9 millionths, [42] [43] [44] which means that its polar diameter differs from its ...

  3. Earth's orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_orbit

    Earth orbit (yellow) compared to a circle (gray) Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi), or 8.317 light-minutes, [1] in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million ...

  4. Earth's circumference - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_circumference

    Geodesy. Earth's circumference is the distance around Earth. Measured around the equator, it is 40,075.017 km (24,901.461 mi). Measured passing through the poles, the circumference is 40,007.863 km (24,859.734 mi). [1] Measurement of Earth's circumference has been important to navigation since ancient times. The first known scientific ...

  5. Earth - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth

    Earth's average orbital distance is about 150 million km (93 million mi), which is the basis for the astronomical unit (AU) and is equal to roughly 8.3 light minutes or 380 times Earth's distance to the Moon. Earth orbits the Sun every 365.2564 mean solar days, or one sidereal year. With an apparent movement of the Sun in Earth's sky at a rate ...

  6. On the Sizes and Distances (Aristarchus) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances...

    Proposition 6 states that the Moon moves [in an orbit] lower than [that of] the Sun, and, when it is halved, is distant less than a quadrant from the Sun (Heath 1913:372). Proposition 7 states that the distance of the Sun from the Earth is greater than 18 times, but less than 20 times, the distance of the Moon from the Earth (Heath 1913:377 ...

  7. Eratosthenes - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

    With a stade of 185 m (607 ft), 804,000,000 stadia is 149,000,000 km (93,000,000 mi), approximately the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Eratosthenes also calculated the Sun's diameter. According to Macrobius, Eratosthenes made the diameter of the Sun to be about 27 times that of the Earth. [17] The actual figure is approximately 109 times. [26]

  8. Solar radius - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radius

    Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun 's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: [1] 695,700 kilometres (432,300 miles) is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter, 109 times the radius ...

  9. History of geodesy - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_geodesy

    The 180,000 stadia circumference of Posidonius is close to that which results from another method of measuring the Earth, by timing ocean sunsets from different heights, a method which is inaccurate due to horizontal atmospheric refraction. Posidonius furthermore expressed the distance of the Sun in Earth radii.