ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Angular distance

Angular distance is a way of measuring how far apart two things are in space. Imagine you and your friend are standing on opposite sides of a really big playground. You want to know how far apart you are from your friend, but you can't just use regular measuring tools like a ruler or tape measure. Instead, you use angular distance.

To measure angular distance, you use something called an angle. An angle is like a slice of pizza or a piece of pie. It has two lines that meet in the middle, and the space between those lines is called the angle.

So, to measure the angular distance between you and your friend on the playground, you would imagine drawing a line from your eye to your friend's eye. Then, you would draw another line from your eye to a point directly in front of you. The angle between those two lines is the angular distance between you and your friend.

Just like a ruler measures distance in inches or centimeters, angular distance is measured in degrees. A circle has 360 degrees, so if you and your friend are standing directly across from each other, the angular distance would be 180 degrees (half of a circle). But if you were standing at an angle to each other, the angular distance would be less than 180 degrees.

Scientists use angular distance to measure things like how far apart stars are from each other in the sky, or how far a planet is from its sun in space. It's a really useful tool for understanding the layout of our universe!