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Science word of the day: Parsec
Live Science • • science
Key Points:
- A parsec is a unit of distance, not time, which caused confusion in Star Wars when Han Solo claimed the Millennium Falcon completed the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
- A parsec is defined as the distance at which a star shows a heliocentric parallax of one arc second, which is 1/3600 of a degree.
- This distance equals approximately 206,265 times the Earth-Sun distance, or about 3.26 light-years.
- The 2018 film "Solo: A Star Wars Story" attempts to reinterpret Han Solo's statement to mean distance rather than time, though this explanation remains debated among fans.
