Parsec

A parsec is a way of measuring how far away things are in space. Imagine you are playing a game and you want to find out how far away the other player is. If you know how tall they are, you can use that to figure out how far away they are. This is what scientists do with stars in space.

Instead of using the height of the star, they use something called parallax. Parallax is like when you move your head and objects look like they're moving too. It's the shift in position that's caused by your changing perspective.

Scientists look at stars from two different positions in space, and they compare the two images to see how much the star has moved. If they know the distance between the two positions, they can use some math to figure out how far away the star is.

This distance is measured in parsecs. A parsec is a really big number, it's about 3.26 light-years. This means that if you could travel at the speed of light (which is the fastest speed possible), it would take you 3.26 years to get there.

So, a parsec is just a way of measuring how far away things are in space. Scientists use it to figure out how far away stars are, and it helps them understand and study the universe.