Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
(2 Corinthians 2:10) KJV
Objects in space may be closer than they appear. Betelgeuse isn’t only around 25% closer to Earth than previously thought, but it’s also considerably smaller. Those aren’t our words, they’re from the popular science press (SciPop).
Once we had the physical size of the star, we were able to determine the distance from Earth. Our results show it’s a mere 530 light-years from us—25 percent closer than previously thought.
– Dr. László Molnár
- In 1920, interference patterns among its light waves were used to come up with an angular diameter – the width of Betelgeuse’s starlight as it hangs in our sky – of close to 47 milliarcseconds. Based on an assumed distance of around 180 light years, the red star was initially thought to have a diameter equivalent to around two and a half times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
- Revisions of its location in the past few years pushed it further back to a distance of 724 light years away, where those 47 milliarcseconds represented something more like 1,300 times the diameter of the Sun; a diameter that would see Betelgeuse swallow up planets roughly in Jupiter’s orbit.
- So, knowing that the star is actually just 530-or-so light-years from Earth means that estimates about its size based on observations are also incorrect.
The angular size of an object is combines with it’s presumed distance to derive its size. When the distance has been exaggerated by assuming heliocentricity, the size is also exaggerated.
October 17th – Corollary VIII
Matty’s Parallax
Matty (Headwind) 