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Siriometer

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Unit of measurement

The siriometer is an obsolete astronomical unit of length, defined to be equal to one million astronomical units (au). One siriometer is approximately 149.6 petametres; 4.848 parsecs; 15.81 light-years. The distance from Earth to the star Sirius is then approximately 0.54 siriometers.

The unit was proposed in 1911 by Carl V. L. Charlier, who worked on stellar statistics. Charlier originally used the symbol 'sir' but the symbol 'Sm' has also seen use.

The siriometer never gained widespread usage. Frank Dyson (the Astronomer Royal) objected to the name siriometer, because "it suggests a machine for measuring". The first General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in 1922 adopted the parsec as the standard unit of stellar distances, which simplified the definition of absolute magnitude. Use of the siriometer seems to have disappeared from the astronomical literature by c. 1930. Modern professional astronomers use the parsec as their primary unit for distances larger than the Solar System.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Charlier, C. V. L. (1921). Lectures on Stellar Statistics. Bibcode:1921lss..book.....C.
  2. Charlier, C. V. L. (May 1913). "An Investigation on the Motion of the Stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 73 (7): 486–492. Bibcode:1913MNRAS..73..486C. doi:10.1093/mnras/73.7.486. I have used ... the term "Siriometer" for denoting a distance equal to a million times the mean distance of the Sun from the Earth.
  3. ^ Beech, Martin (2008). "The reluctant parsec and the overlooked light-year". The Observatory. 128: 489. Bibcode:2008Obs...128..489B.
  4. "Astronomy in Sweden 1860-1940". www.astro.uu.se. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
  5. "units". nrc-cnrc.github.io. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  6. "Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society. Friday, 1913 March 14". The Observatory. 36 (460): 160. April 1913. Bibcode:1913Obs....36..160.
  7. Malmquist, K. G. (1925). "On the units of distance in stellar astronomy". The Observatory. 48: 142. Bibcode:1925Obs....48..142M.


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