RADAR DETERMINATION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL UNIT,

Abstract

A comprehensive review is given of the Earth-Venus measurements made with the Lincoln Laboratory Millstone radar in 1959 and 1961. The time-delay and Doppler shift data yield a value for the Astronomical Unit of 499.0052 = 0.001 light sec. Using 299 792.5 km/s for the speed of light leads to an AU of 149 598 000 = 300 km. With the radius of Earth taken as 6 378.15 km, the solar parallax then becomes 8 min.79416 = 0 min.00002. This value is consistent with measurements made at various other laboratories to about one part in 100,000. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0621394

Entities

People

  • Irwin Shapiro

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Buildings And Structures
  • Doppler Effect
  • Frequency
  • Measurement

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Radar Systems Engineering.