Distance and Visibility
Gliese 876 is located fairly close to the Solar System. According to astrometric measurements made by the Hipparcos satellite, the star shows a parallax of 213.28 milliarcseconds, which corresponds to a distance of 4.69 parsecs (15.3 ly), currently making it the fourth closest known star with orbiting planets, after Alpha Centauri, Epsilon Eridani, and Gliese 674. Despite being located so close to Earth, the star is so faint that it is invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen using a telescope.
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Famous quotes containing the words distance and, distance and/or visibility:
“One sees qualities at a distance and defects at close range.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My children have taught me things. Things I thought I knew. The most profound wisdom they have given me is a respect for human vulnerability. I have known that people are resilient, but I didn’t appreciate how fragile they are. Until children learn to hide their feelings, you read them in their faces, gestures, and postures. The sheer visibility of shyness, pain, and rejection let me recognize and remember them.”
—Shirley Nelson Garner (20th century)