Here’s how it works. A parsec is a unit of distance that is often used by astronomers as an alternative to the light-year, just as kilometers can be used as an alternative to miles. Sci-fi ...

Earth's distance from the sun does not stay the same throughout the year. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. An astronomical ...

It might make more sense to use a distance unit that doesn't involve ginormous numbers. That's where the parsec comes in. The parsec depends on one big idea—parallax. Let's start with a simple ...

We use light-years most commonly in Astronomy magazine, but astronomers prefer to use a unit called a parsec. It’s short for the distance corresponding to a “PARallax of one arcSECond ...

As NDT suggests, "A Parsec is an obscure unit of distance in Astrophysics, equal to 3.26 Light Years*. Neither has anything to do with time." *That's about 19 trillion miles, or about 30.5 ...

The quote has become an easy target for pedants to point out that a 'parsec' is a unit of distance, not time (it's an abbreviation of 'parallax arcsecond', used to measure the distance to faraway ...