Question

A star has a parallax angle p of 0.723 arcseconds. What is the distance of the star?

• A. 1.38 parsecs
• B. 2.38 parsecs
• C. 3.38 parsecs
• D. 4.38 parsecs

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

1.38 parsecs

Relationship between a star's distance and its parallax angle:

$d=\frac{1}{p}$

The distance $d$ is measured in parsecs and the parallax angle $p$is measured in arcseconds.

Hence, $d=\frac{1}{0.723}=1.38parsecs$