Question

If the star Alpha Centauri were moved to a distance 10 times farther than it is now, its parallax angle would

Answer 1

Answer:

decrease by a factor 10

Explanation:

The parallax angle of a close star is given by

$p=\frac{1}{d}$

where

p is the parallax angle

d is the distance of the star from Earth, in parsecs

From the formula we see that the parallax angle is inversely proportional to the distance.

In this problem, the distance of the star is increased by a factor 10:

d' = 10 d

so the new parallax angle would be

$p'=\frac{1}{10 d}=\frac{1}{10}\frac{1}{d}=\frac{p}{10}$

So, the parallax angle would decrease by a factor 10.