Distance and Parallax

Now that you have mastered the concepts behind parallax, stellar parallax, and spectroscopic parallax, use your knowledge to provide the correct answers to the following questions. Make sure to completely answer each question and to show all of your work.

This activity is available below or in a printable version.

1. The star alpha Centauri has a parallax of p=0.742. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
2. A nearby star is measured to have a parallax of p=0.02. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
3. The star Arcturus is measured to have a parallax of p=0.090. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
4. The star Procyon is measured to have a parallax of p=0.288. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
5. The star Hadar is measured to have a parallax of p=0.0062. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
6. The star Rigel is measured to have a parallax of p=0.0042. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
7. The star Sirius is measured to have a parallax of p=0.194. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
8. The star Vega is measured to have a parallax of p=0.025. What is the distance to this star in parsecs?
9. The first successful use of parallax to determine the distance of star by parallax was in 1838 by Friedrich Bessell. Why do you think it took so long to discover the parallax of stars?
10. What are the limits of the use of stellar parallax in determining the distance of stars?

Once you have completed these parallax problem set, please submit your work to the dropbox.