Apparently, the distance to the Pleiades has now been accurately measured.
Astronomy / Space Hipparcos got it wrong?
- Thread starter Cody
- Start date
S
At last check, close to the Hipparcos distances. In game distances from Sol from galactic -VWU coordinates, to within 1 ly.
Merope 380 ly
Pleione 382 ly
Atlas 382 ly
Maia 384 ly
Alcyone 403 ly
Electra 405 ly
Taygeta 418 ly
Some Hipparcos parallaxes (mas) with [mean error], and a range of possible distances defined by the span of the mean error :
Merope 8.58 [0.37] = 364-397 ly
Pleione 8.54 [0.31] = 368-396 ly
Atlas 8.53 [0.39] = 365-400 ly
Maia 8.51 [0.28] =371-396 ly
Alcyone 8.09 [0.42] = 383-425 ly
Electra 8.06 [0.25] = 392-417 ly
Taygeta 7.97 [0.33] = 393-427 ly
The Pleiades parallax mean errors give an idea of how trustworthy distances near the limits of the Hipparcos instrument are. The curious thing was the systematic measurement error lower than the ~444 ly reported by VLBI.
The Pleiades are passing through one of the nearest reflection nebulae. As the Hipparcos instrument measured light intensity peaks as it slowly rotated, rather than image data, perhaps the nebulousity interfered with angular resolution of the peaks.
Merope 8.58 [0.37] = 364-397 ly
Pleione 8.54 [0.31] = 368-396 ly
Atlas 8.53 [0.39] = 365-400 ly
Maia 8.51 [0.28] =371-396 ly
Alcyone 8.09 [0.42] = 383-425 ly
Electra 8.06 [0.25] = 392-417 ly
Taygeta 7.97 [0.33] = 393-427 ly
The Pleiades parallax mean errors give an idea of how trustworthy distances near the limits of the Hipparcos instrument are. The curious thing was the systematic measurement error lower than the ~444 ly reported by VLBI.
The Pleiades are passing through one of the nearest reflection nebulae. As the Hipparcos instrument measured light intensity peaks as it slowly rotated, rather than image data, perhaps the nebulousity interfered with angular resolution of the peaks.
