Parallax measurements for Wolf 359 and Proxima Centauri
Parallax measurements for Wolf 359 and Proxima Centauri
On 22 and 23 April of this year, the spacecraft New Horizons – travelling far from Earth and the Sun – imaged of two stars that are relatively close to our solar system, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 in the constellation of Leo. A comparison of the images taken by the spacecraft and those obtained simultaneously on Earth clearly reveals how the two stars occupy slightly different positions relative to the background stars, which are over 100 times further away, in each set of images. In astronomy, this is called the parallax effect. Although New Horizon's parallax measurements do not improve on the already known distances to Proxima Centauri, and are primarily intended to illustrate how the perspective on our familiar view of the starry sky changes at a greater distance from Earth, they do, in the long term, pave the way for new application opportunities such as for interstellar navigation.
