Action item 1 The red giant star Betelgeuse is 640 light years distance. What is

Question

Action item 1 The red giant star Betelgeuse is 640 light years distance. What is its parallax in arc seconds and then in degrees? Hint: 1 pc 3.261 light years. a) b) A pivotal battle between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg Collective was fought around the star Wolf 359. This particular star has a parallax of 0.419 arc seconds. How long would it take a radio message to travel from a Federation ship to the Earth? Show all your calculations. c) A particular photographic survey can measure the positions of stars to an accuracy of 103 arc seconds. Out to what distance from the Sun (in parsecs) can the survey data be used to measure stellar parallaxes? Explain your reasoning and show all calculations

Explanation / Answer

a) In one light year, we have 0.306601 parsec

so, 640 light years will be equal to 196.22464 parsecs

and the relation between distance and parallax is

d = 1 / p

where d- distance (in parsecs) , p - parallax (in arcseconds)

p = 1/d

p = 1/196.22464 parsecs

p = 0.005096 arcseconds

b) d = 1/p

d = 1/0.419

d = 2.387 parsecs

1 parsec = 3.086e+16 meter

so, we have d = 7.36551e16 meter

now, time = distance/speed

time = 7.36551e16 / 3e8

time = 2.455e8 seconds

c) You can use the same formula as used above and let me know if you have any doubt

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