A Conversation for Parsecs
Should be an Earth Parsec
weirdguy Started conversation Dec 8, 1999
The figure is incorrect, as some earlier posters noted. The measurement is based on "fixed" stars behind the star in question and is based on measurements from earth 6 months apart, or on opposite sides of the sun. I say "fixed" because no stars are fixed, they just seem to move less because their movements are less measureable the farther away they are. So "fixed" means that they are so far away that they have no apparent parallax.
But getting to my point, a parsec will be defined differently for every planet because every planet will have a different orbital diameter, so it technically should be defined as an earth parsec, but why should this be different from any other unit of measurement when dealing with the universe, because the Astronomical Unit is also based on our distance from the sun.
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Should be an Earth Parsec
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