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This Month …. The Astronomical Unit or AU. Used for measuring distances within our Solar System. The Astronomical Unit (AU) is an astronomical unit of measurement used to represent the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, approximately 150 million kilometres. The Astronomical Unit is important because it provides a standard unit of measurement for distances within our solar system. It allows astronomers to accurately describe and compare the distances between celestial bodies.

During the course of a year, the Earth goes from a distance of 0.983 AU, 147,095,000 kilometres to 1.016 AU, 152,100,000 kilometres. Because of the vast distances in interstellar and intergalactic space the Astronomical Unit is not suitable for measuring distances outside our solar system. For these measurements astronomers use other units such as light-years or parsecs. To get an idea of the size of our solar system Mercury is 0.39 AU while Neptune is 30 AU away fro The Sun. The Earth is on average 1 AU away from The Sun.

The diagram left is by nagualdesign,