Assertion: estimate | /r/HasProperty | close to modern values
Facets:
value: remarkably
type: DEGREE
Source sentences:
text: Christiaan Huygens believed that the distance was even greater: by comparing the apparent sizes of Venus and Mars, he estimated a value of about 24000 Earth radii, equivalent to a solar parallax of 8.6″. Although Huygens' estimate is remarkably close to modern values, it is often discounted by historians of astronomy because of the many unproven (and incorrect) assumptions he had to make for his method to work; the accuracy of his value seems to be based more on luck than good measurement, with his various errors cancelling each other out.