First interstellar parallax experiment. Two views of the star Proxima Centauri (upper centre). The image at left was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft at a distance of approximately 7 billion kilometres from Earth, the image at right was taken from Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. This is the first time an image has been able to be taken where it is easy to observe that stars are in a different position to that seen from Earth. The observed shift in position, known as the parallax effect, can be used to measure distance to stars and could be used for interstellar navigation. The New Horizons image was taken by the spacecraft's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera. Both images were obtained on 22nd April 2020. | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / Edward Gomez, Las Cumbres Observatory, Siding Spring node / Southwest Research Institute / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / NASA |
Taille de l’image : | 3818 px × 1972 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |