ASTRONOMICAL UNIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Astronomical Unit mean? 

• ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (noun)
  The noun ASTRONOMICAL UNIT has 1 sense:

1. a unit of length used for distances within the solar system; equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (approximately 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers)

  Familiarity information: ASTRONOMICAL UNIT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A unit of length used for distances within the solar system; equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (approximately 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

Astronomical Unit; AU

Hypernyms ("Astronomical Unit" is a kind of...):

astronomy unit (a linear unit used for astronomical distances)

 Context examples 

An astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun, equal to 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).

(Cassini spies the ice-giant planet Uranus, NASA)

One light year is equal to 63239.7 astronomical units, 0.3066 parsecs, 5.88E12 miles, or 9.460528405E15 meters.

(Light-Year, NCI Thesaurus)

We observe an extended area of infrared emissions around this neutron star — named RX J0806.4-4123 — the total size of which translates into about 200 astronomical units (approximately 18 billion miles) at the assumed distance of the pulsar.

(Hubble Uncovers Never-Before-Seen Features Around a Neutron Star, NASA)

The distance between the two stars is less than between Mercury and the Sun, and about eight percent of an astronomical unit, in stark contrast to the 100–1000 astronomical units that typically separates two stars in such a system.

(Astronomers discover smallest known star, Wikinews)

At their closest - once during each Saturn orbit of nearly 30 years - the two planets approach to within about 10 astronomical units of each other.

(Cassini spies the ice-giant planet Uranus, NASA)

When this view was obtained, Uranus was nearly on the opposite side of the sun as seen from Saturn, at a distance of approximately 28.6 astronomical units from Cassini and Saturn.

(Cassini spies the ice-giant planet Uranus, NASA)