👌 Surveying the Stars

The closest star, a red dwarf, is over 1 parsec away. The first successful measurements of stellar parallaxes were reported in 1838. Parallax measurements are a fundamental link in the chain of cosmic distances. The Hipparcos satellite has allowed us to measure accurate parallaxes for stars out to about 300 light-years, and the Gaia mission will result in parallaxes out to 30,000 light-years.