Barnard's star is 5.9 ly from Earth. Its parallax angle is 0.55". Note 1 pc is 3.26 ly and 1 ly is 63200 AU.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate the distance to Barnard's star in ly, we use the formula:

distance (in ly) = 1 / parallax angle (in arcseconds)

So, for Barnard's star:

distance (in ly) = 1 / 0.55" = 1.818 pc

To convert this to ly, we multiply by 3.26:

distance (in ly) = 1.818 pc * 3.26 ly/pc = 5.93268 ly

This is very close to the given value of 5.9 ly, so the statement is true.

Barnard's Star Is 5