Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
Using calculations gleaned from parallax observations Cassini had a fairly decent stab at the distance involved - and that was in the 17th century. As we have far more technology at our disposal nowadays we can now anticipate the movement of the planets around the sun (anannual event for us on Earth) in our solar system to such a degree that we can get space craft to return to our spinning and moving planet after weeks, months or years, wherever it is in relation to the sun. To imagine that the distance from the sun is only a theory is rather ridiculous. I think it's more of a case of not understanding how such distances are determined.
We've also in the last century sent various spacecraft to visit several of the other planets, landed on a comet with pinpoint precision with a trajectory that took 12 years and looped past the earth and mars several times to get to the correct speed and position exactly as calculated.
the idea that we could do all that but somehow not know for sure how far away the sun is is utterly ridiculous.