Analysis and Comparison of Cosmic Distance-Measuring Scenarios

Abstract

As a matter of fact, astronomical research relies heavily on Earth-star distance measurement. With this in mind, it is crucial to develop accurate detection approaches with high precision facility. On this basis, this study introduced four commonly used measuring methods. The trigonometric parallax, in which triangulation is used to calculate the distance. The spectroscopic parallax, determining the distance of stars through spectrum analysis, and the comparison between a star’s luminosity and apparent brightness. The variable stars measurement, in which the variable stars are set as standard distances to determine nearby stars’ distance. The main-sequence fitting method uses theoretical models to determine the distance of stars in star clusters. While the first two methods are more likely to be precise, the last two are able to measure the distance of further stars. To gain more accuracy, more research about the cosmic background and theoretical models needs to be done. Overall, these results shed light on guiding further exploration of distance measurement.