About how many stars has the Hipparcos mission given us accurate distance data on?
A)about 3,000, about half of what you can see with the naked eye alone
B)over 6000, the visible naked eye stars and some seen in binoculars
C)60,000, those within about 100 light-years of us
D)a million, those with parallaxes of .005" or larger
E)over 100 billion, almost every star in the galaxy

Question

About how many stars has the Hipparcos mission given us accurate distance data on?
A)about 3,000, about half of what you can see with the naked eye alone
B)over 6000, the visible naked eye stars and some seen in binoculars
C)60,000, those within about 100 light-years of us
D)a million, those with parallaxes of .005" or larger
E)over 100 billion, almost every star in the galaxy

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Hipparcos mission, a cornerstone project by the European Space Agency, was designed to measure the positions, distances, and proper motions of stars with unprecedented precision. It successfully measured parallaxes (and hence distances) for about a million stars, those with parallaxes of .005" or larger, significantly improving our three-dimensional map of the stars in our vicinity of the Milky Way.

About How Many Stars Has the Hipparcos Mission Given Us