Parsec | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-05-10

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec


00:02:40 1 History and derivation
00:06:42 1.1 Calculating the value of a parsec
00:11:02 2 Usage and measurement
00:12:23 3 Distances in parsecs
00:13:54 3.1 Distances less than a parsec
00:14:05 3.2 Parsecs and kiloparsecs
00:14:58 3.3 Megaparsecs and gigaparsecs
00:16:38 4 Volume units
00:18:45 5 In popular culture
00:20:10 6 See also
00:20:40 7 Notes



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SUMMARY
=======
The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System. A parsec is defined as the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one arcsecond, which corresponds to 648000/π astronomical units. One parsec is equal to about 3.26 light-years or 31 trillion kilometres (31×1012 km) or 19 trillion miles (19×1012 mi). The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light-years) from the Sun. Most of the stars visible to the unaided eye in the night sky are within 500 parsecs of the Sun.The parsec unit was probably first suggested in 1913 by the British astronomer Herbert Hall Turner. Named as a portmanteau of the parallax of one arcsecond, it was defined to make calculations of astronomical distances from only their raw observational data quick and easy for astronomers. Partly for this reason, it is the unit preferred in astronomy and astrophysics, though the light-year remains prominent in popular science texts and common usage. Although parsecs are used for the shorter distances within the Milky Way, multiples of parsecs are required for the larger scales in the universe, including kiloparsecs (kpc) for the more distant objects within and around the Milky Way, megaparsecs (Mpc) for mid-distance galaxies, and gigaparsecs (Gpc) for many quasars and the most distant galaxies.
In August 2015, the IAU passed Resolution B2, which, as part of the definition of a standardized absolute and apparent bolometric magnitude scale, mentioned an existing explicit definition of the parsec as exactly 648000/π astronomical units, or approximately 3.08567758149137×1016 metres (based on the IAU 2012 exact SI definition of the astronomical unit). This corresponds to the small-angle definition of the parsec found in many contemporary astronomical references.