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The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,265 astronomical units (AU), i.e. 30.9 trillion kilometres (19.2 trillion miles).
Parsec: 206,265 – One parsec. The parsec is defined in terms of the astronomical unit, is used to measure distances beyond the scope of the Solar System and is about 3.26 light-years: 1 pc = 1 au/tan(1″) [6] [61] Proxima Centauri: 268,000: ± 126 Distance to the nearest star to the Solar System – Galactic Centre of the Milky Way ...
The light-month, roughly one-twelfth of a light-year, is also used occasionally for approximate measures. [37] [38] The Hayden Planetarium specifies the light month more precisely as 30 days of light travel time. [39] Light travels approximately one foot in a nanosecond; the term "light-foot" is sometimes used as an informal measure of time. [40]
A parsec is the distance from the Sun to an astronomical object that has a parallax angle of one arcsecond (not to scale). The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,265 astronomical units (AU), i.e. 30.9 trillion kilometres (19.2 trillion miles).
Stellar parallax measures are given in the tiny units of arcseconds, or even in thousandths of arcseconds (milliarcseconds). The distance unit parsec is defined as the length of the leg of a right triangle adjacent to the angle of one arcsecond at one vertex, where the other leg is 1 AU long.
In the Zork series of games, the Great Underground Empire has its own system of measurements, the most frequently referenced of which is the bloit. Defined as the distance the king's favorite pet can run in one hour (spoofing a popular legend about the history of the foot), the length of the bloit varies dramatically, but the one canonical conversion to real-world units puts it at ...
Used to measure the time between alternating power cycles. Also a casual term for a short period of time. centisecond: 10 −2 s: One hundredth of a second. decisecond: 10 −1 s: One tenth of a second. second: 1 s: SI base unit for time. decasecond: 10 s: Ten seconds (one sixth of a minute) minute: 60 s: hectosecond: 100 s: milliday: 1/1000 d ...
Kepler's laws provide precise ratios of the orbit sizes of objects orbiting the Sun, but provide no measurement of the overall scale of the orbit system. Radar is used to measure the distance between the orbits of the Earth and of a second body. From that measurement and the ratio of the two orbit sizes, the size of Earth's orbit is calculated.