Click anywhere on this site, and you’ll likely run into a measurement in terms of light-years, solar masses, astronomical units, or arcminutes. These units are unique to astronomy, and all can be ...

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Without fanfare, astronomers have redefined one of the most important distances in the Solar System. The astronomical unit (au) — ...

We live in a world defined by inches, feet and miles (or centimeters, meters and kilometers, if you prefer), and it’s not difficult for most of us to comprehend sizes and distances given in these ...

One of the stalwart units of astronomy just got a makeover. The International Astronomical Union, the authority on astronomical constants, has voted unanimously to redefine the astronomical unit, the ...

If you guessed the astronomical unit, you are correct. The au — the rough distance between the Earth and the Sun — was previously determined by a confusing calculation (“the radius of an unperturbed ...