Photometric parallax: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:42, 28 June 2020

Revision as of 20:45, 28 June 2020

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{{wikinews|Huge star cluster discovered in neighbourhood of Milky Way}}

The '''photometricPhotometric parallax method''' is a methodmeans ofto datainfer analysisthe useddistances inof [[astronomystar]]s thatusing uses thetheir colours and apparent brightnesses of stars to infer their distances. It was used by the [[Sloan Digital Sky Survey]] to discover the [[Virgo super star cluster]].

Unlike the [[stellar parallax]] method, the photometric parallax method can be used to estimate the distances of stars over 10 kpc away, at the expense of much more limited accuracy for individual measurements. Strictly speaking, it does not actually employ any measurements of parallax and can be considered a misnomer.

Assuming that a star is on the main sequence, the star's [[absolute magnitude]] can be determined based on its color. Once the absolute and apparent magnitudes are known, the distance to the star can be determined by using the [[distance modulus]].