国际课程课件系列之物理boardworks Astrophysics Part 1 - Astronomical distances.pptVIP

* of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 * of 8 ? Boardworks Ltd 2015 The evolving Universe Astronomical distances Planets, stars and galaxies, and the distances between them, are huge when compared with everyday measurements: distance from Earth to Sun: 149?598?000 000 m To make these distances easier to use, physicists and astronomers use much larger, non-SI units to describe them: 1 astronomical unit (AU) = mean distance from Earth to Sun = 1.5 × 1011 m 1 light year (ly) = distance light travels in a year = 9.5 × 1015 m distance from Sun to galactic centre: 2.5 × 1020 m Parallax Using parallax to measure distance The closer a star is to the Earth, the more parallax it shows as the Earth orbits the Sun. How can parallax be used to measure this distance? The parallax angle, p, is defined as half the angle that the near star appears to move through: The distance from the Earth to the Sun, r, is 1 AU, so using trigonometry: But p is very small angle, so tanp ≈ p: so r p p d near star apparent motion tanp = d r p = d r d = p r What is a parsec? The word parsec is a shortening of ‘parallax of one arcsecond’. An arcsecond is a small division of a degree, which is a useful measurement in astronomy because the night sky is so vast. An arcminute is a 60th of a degree, and an arcsecond is a 60th of an arcminute, or one 3600th of a degree. 1 parsec (pc) = 1 astronomical unit / 1 arcsecond [1 AU = 1.5 × 1011 m] [1 arcsecond = 2π/(360 × 3600) rad] 1 pc = 3.1 × 1016 m A parsec is the distance away an object must be to have a parallax of one arcsecond when observed from Earth. How does this compare to a lightyear? 1 pc = 3.3 ly …and an astronomical unit? 1 pc = 2.1 × 105 AU Converting units * ? Boardworks 2015 Boardworks A-level Physics Year