What distance does one Astronomical Unit (AU) fundamentally represent?
Answer
Average distance separating the Earth from the Sun
The Astronomical Unit is defined as the average separation between the Earth and the Sun. This average is used because relying on fixed kilometers or miles creates unwieldy numbers for interplanetary scale.
#Videos
AU and Light Years Explained - How we measure space - YouTube
Related Questions
What distance does one Astronomical Unit (AU) fundamentally represent?Why is the AU preferred over kilometers or miles for interplanetary measurements?Approximately how long does it take light to travel one Astronomical Unit?Conceptually, what astronomical framework provided the basis for deriving the AU before modern precise measurements?In what year did the international scientific community formally fix the value of the Astronomical Unit to an exact integer?What is the exact, defined modern value of the AU specified in meters?What is the term for the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun?How much closer does the Earth get to the Sun at perihelion compared to aphelion?When discussing interstellar distances, astronomers typically switch from AU to which larger units?For a spacecraft currently positioned at 10 AU from the Sun, what is the approximate round-trip radio signal delay time?