Barnard’s Flying Star has a record high proper motion (10 “per year). The star’s parallax is 0.5”.
September 17, 2020 | Education
| Barnard’s Flying Star has a record high proper motion (10 “per year). The star’s parallax is 0.5”. Estimate the star’s tangential speed in relation to the Sun.
The parallax of Barnard’s star is 0.5 ″, which means that the distance to it is 2 pc, and the segment is 1 AU in length. at this distance is seen at an angle of 0.5 ″. Due to the tangential motion, Barnard’s star flies 20 times the distance in a year, that is, its tangential velocity relative to the Sun is 20 AU / year. Expressing the astronomical unit in kilometers, and the year in seconds, we get a speed value of 95 km / s.
