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Astronomical system of units

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The astronomical system of units, formally called the IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants, is a
system of measurement developed for use in astronomy.
The astronomical system of units is a tridimensional system, in that it defines units of length, mass and time.
Astronomical unit of The astronomical unit of time is the day, defined as 86400 seconds. 365.25 days
time make up one Julian year.
The symbol D is used in astronomy to refer to this unit.

Astronomical unit of The astronomical unit of mass is the solar mass. The symbol M☉ is often used to
mass refer to this unit.
The solar mass (M☉), 1.98892×1030 kg, is a standard way to express mass in
astronomy, used to describe the masses of other stars and galaxies.
It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth or
1,048 times the mass of Jupiter.
Astronomical unit of In general usage, it is usually referred to simply as the “astronomical unit”, symbol
length au, AU or ua.
The speed of light in IAU is the defined value co = 299 792 458 m/s of the SI units.
Astronomical units for distances:
Astronomical Range Typical Units

Distances to satellites kilometres

Distances to near-Earth objects lunar distance

Planetarydistances astronomical units, gigametres

Distances to nearby stars parsecs, light-years

Distances at the galactic scale kiloparsecs

Distances to nearby galaxies Megaparsecs

Parsecs One parsec is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one
arc second.
A parsec is equal to about 3.26 light-years (31 trillion kilometres or 19 trillion
miles) in length.
The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs from the Sun.

Light Year A light-year is a unit of length used informally to express astronomical distances.
It is approximately 10 trillion kilometres (or about 6 trillion miles),
As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the
distance that light travels in vacuum in one Julian year.
The light-year is most often used when expressing distances to stars and other
distances on a galactic scale, especially in non-specialist and popular science
publications.
The unit usually used in professional astrometry is the parsec (symbol: pc,
approximately 3.26 light-years; the distance at which one astronomical unit
subtends an angle of one second of arc).

Earth mass Earth mass (M⊕) is the unit of mass equal to that of the Earth. 1 M⊕ = 5.9742 ×
1024 kg.
Earth mass is often used to describe masses of rocky terrestrial planets.